03.05.08
IEEE Spectrum (March Issue) Touches on Software Patents, Akamai Still Uses Them
“One thing that has been worrisome over the last few years are … stupid external issues — especially patents and stuff like that…”
The widely distributed journal, IEEE Spectrum, has just published a short piece about software patents.
The four pillars of intellectual property — patents, copyright, trademarks, and trade secrets — all play roles in protecting software. No wonder this is one of the most slippery subjects for an engineer’s lawyer.
The piece as a whole is disappointing and it represents failure to realise and to criticise what must never have been patentable in the first place. Just ask those who are affected and those are there to ‘benefit’ (mind the poll results at the very end).
There is this unfortunate assumption made in the literature that when something become a law (or lobbylaw), then it must no longer be questioned. Gutless reporting is not a case of resisting rebellion. It’s a case of becoming part of the problem, rather than taking the lead and bringing solutions.
Akamai, in the mean time, continues to disappoint. Despite Akamai’s work around GNU/Linux, the company has recently sinned [1, 2]. The criticism and the fear is still being echoed in the press. Here are two new articles which relate to the most recent ruling:
To recap, on Friday afternoon a jury in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts ruled that Limelight infringed on an Akamai patent that covers certain technologies related to content delivery via the Internet. The jury awarded Akamai $45.5 million in damages, and we fully expect Limelight to appeal the verdict as it believes it did not infringe on Akamai’s patent.
2. Microsoft Should Be Clear of Infringing Akamai’s 703 Patent
Live streaming, software downloads, application acceleration, delivery to a device etc… are not infringing as they are either not cached or not delivered to a browser. So not everything on Limelight’s network is in violation of the 703 patent. I don’t know what percentage of Limelight’s traffic or revenue is outside of the 703 patent but that would be interesting to know.
Akamai, for those who are unaware, used to actually serve Microsoft Web pages via GNU/Linux. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.