[CoLoCo] Good Job Mark Shuttleworth

[phillip tribble]

Oct. 10, 2007

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has once more claimed that Linux and open source
violates Microsoft's intellectual property and patents. Canonical's CEO Mark
Shuttleworth thinks Ballmer has it all wrong.

In an interview with Linux-Watch, Shuttleworth, the man behind the
popular Ubuntu
Linux <http://www.ubuntu.com/> distribution, explained why he thinks Ballmer's
latest claims against Linux and open
source<http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3513440381.html>are so much
nonsense.

For starters, Shuttleworth said, Ballmer is implying that open-source
developers don't take IP seriously. Nothing could be further from the truth,
he said.

"Intellectual property is something the free software community takes very,
very seriously," said the software leader and first African national in
space. "There is a perception that the free software is somehow riding on
the coattails of the real industry or somehow avoids intellectual property
laws."

All you need to do, said Shuttleworth, is look at how free software and
open-source advocates approach open-source licenses, like the
GPL<http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8508141327.html>.
Shuttleworth also noted that these licenses aren't some community
abstraction. "All these licenses are based on copyright law," he said.

Shuttleworth added that another idea that Ballmer is trying to push in his
statements is the assumption that open source doesn't lead to
innovation—that, in short, all open source can do is copy off the research
done by Microsoft and other companies that follow the traditional commercial
campus approach.

"There is a tremendous amount of innovation that happens in the open-source
community. It is not simply duplicating other company's intellectual
property research. The reality is quite the reverse. Today, real IP is
created by open-source developers around the globe instead of the best and
brightest you can hire and put on your campus."

For example, Shuttleworth said, "Look at how Internet Explorer 7 was driven
by Firefox's success and
innovation<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1841482,00.asp>,
and how Microsoft's virtualization is now based on
Xen<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1990366,00.asp>
.

If Microsoft has any real IP issues, Shuttleworth said that he "would be
delighted to work with Microsoft to resolve any IP issues they might have."
Of course, "That requires them to tell us what these infringements are," he
said.

Shuttleworth continued: "Ballmer is saying that Linux is not a safe
neighborhood for users. He's implying that simply using open source is
somehow dangerous. They need to back off on those claims. They're simply not
true. Microsoft must actually state what the infringements are."

Shuttleworth said that it is not like Microsoft has any right to throw
stones since they live in an IP violation glass
house<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1988066,00.asp>.
"Microsoft settles an average of one billion dollars in IP claims a year.
Microsoft trades on IP violations all the time. It seems to wrong for them
to use that same framework against open source."

What perhaps upsets Shuttleworth the most is that, at the end of the day,
Microsoft doesn't seem to realize that open source and proprietary software
developers have much in common when it comes to IP laws.

"Microsoft and open source both have the same interest to create a level IP
platform. The patent system is not good for anyone. It's not good for
Microsoft. It's not good for the little inventor next door. It's not good
for FOSS [free and open-source software]. Companies that make money by doing
nothing but holding on to patents until someone creates a useful program are
the real problem. It's these patent trolls that are dangers to both."

Shuttleworth said that he hopes that a day comes when Microsoft realizes
that it's the broken IP system itself, and not Linux or open source, that's
the real problem, the problem that all developers have in common. For now,
Microsoft seems to intend to continue to trot out vague IP
claims<http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6670466370.html>without any
proof against Linux and open source.
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