Microsoft to back customers in infringement cases
Posted by malebolgia on 10 November 2004 - 09:25 · 13 comments & 902 views
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(6 replies)
#1 Posted by Foub on 10 Nov 2004 - 12:04
- What, does this mean that they are going to protect those with pirated copies as well?
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#1.1 Posted by Fally on 10 Nov 2004 - 13:40
- No, it means that if MS stole code or ideas from someone to make any of their software, the customer cannot be sued for using it. Ultimately, they are responsible.
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#1.3 Posted by STV on 10 Nov 2004 - 15:09
- @Fally: if they know that they stole code, then please tell me why they would possibly spend a whole bunch of money to indemnify hundreds of millions of users? microsoft knows that with this string of stupid and uses cases brought against it, it wants its customers to feel safe in the fact that they wont be sued as a result of these sorts of cases.
who would protect the people using all linux distros if even one of those 271 possible patent infringment accusations was actually true?
STV -
#1.4 Posted by Colonel_Angus on 10 Nov 2004 - 16:49
QUOTE who would protect the people using all linux distros if even one of those 271 possible patent infringment accusations was actually true?
If you use Microsoft's OS, Microsoft would protect you.
If you use Apple's OS, Apple would protect you.
If you use Sun's OS, Sun would protect you.
If you use RedHat's OS, ______ would protect you.
If you use SUSE's OS, ____ would protect you.
STV, I know your a windowz n00b, but I hope even you could see a pattern here.-
#1.5 Posted by SVT on 10 Nov 2004 - 19:50
- In reply to #1.4, Some hardware vendors will indemnify customers if you run Linux on their hardware, for example I know HP does this(Source). IIRC, Dell provides indemnification if you buy one of their systems with RedHat pre-installed.
SVT
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(1 reply)
#2 Posted by SniperX on 10 Nov 2004 - 12:45
- Doesn't SUN already do this?
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(1 reply)
#3 Posted by za3zoo3 on 10 Nov 2004 - 13:28
- what that news?
QUOTE Microsoft wants customers to know they are in good hands when they choose its software.
its mean now we are in bad hands ?
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(1 reply)
#4 Posted by aristotle-dude on 10 Nov 2004 - 15:46
- Uh. If they did steal any code, why would they spend money on this?
This seems like the actions of a guilty party who hopes they don't get caught. It would be foolish to get insurance for something you know will never happen. -
#4.1 Posted by MegaManXcalibur on 10 Nov 2004 - 18:14
- I think it's more of a way to make the customer feel like they are getting something extra.
In the business world this whole idea of IP protection started to become a bigger issue when SCO decided to sue IBM (and later anybody who uses Linu
. But the part that got the busniness world's attention is when SCO went after AutoZone and Chrysler for using Linux (because SCO claims there is some of their proprietary UNIX code in Linu. It pretty much brought up the questions "who is going to pay?" if there is a lawsuit against the company who supplies your operating system.
Microsoft is simply saying "if somebody says we have stolen code in our system we will be responsible and will protect our customers from lawsuits." It's just a nice little way os saying you are getting something extra by using Microsoft products.
The software maker plans to announce Wednesday that it will indemnify nearly all its customers against any claims that their use of Microsoft software infringed on any intellectual property claims. The company already offers unlimited protection to its volume license customers, but is adding the indemnity for customers who buy its key products in other ways, such as from a computer maker or even off a retail shelf.
"When we looked at things, there was no reason not to provide that coverage to all those folks as well," said David Kaefer, director of intellectual property licensing for Microsoft. The protection covers four main types of claims: patent, copyright, trade secret and trademark. The protection extends to nearly all of Microsoft's products, with the main exception being embedded versions of Windows, largely because customers are able to modify the code.
Other
Ben Goodger has updated his Blog with some interesting stuff concerning the 1.0 release. Read the whole entry here.
This day has come a lot later than any of us originally planned, but that's the way software goes. I've learned a lot about a huge number of things in the process, have had the opportunity to talk to a lot of different people about their experiences with the software, etc. It's been a long road but we're finally here. No software is perfect, we did not fix every bug, implement every feature, but what we did do was create what we believe to be the best browser around. I want to thank you all again for the support over the past few years.
We also asked Ben what the progress was after 1.0 :
"After 1.0 we plan to resync our development work with the Mozilla trunk so that we can immediately pick up the great work that's been going on with Gecko since we've been away, continue our HIG compliance efforts for MacOS X, improve existing systems and plan for the next major release. The first interim release will be 1.1 in or around March 2005. ".