Start-up claims network injunction against Longhorn – ZDNet UK News — Without comment.
Microsoft’s Chimney networking architecture could go up in smoke if a small Californian company is successful
A small Californian company says it has been granted a preliminary injunction preventing Microsoft from incorporating a patented networking method into future versions of Windows.
Alacritech said on Wednesday that the injunction blocks Microsoft from using its Chimney architecture, which Alacritech said Microsoft plans to include in both a “scalable networking pack” for Windows Server 2003 and in Longhorn, the next version of Windows.
Microsoft’s Chimney software provides support for hardware that accelerates networking using the TCP/IP standard, which underlies the Internet and countless private networks. Microsoft designed Chimney to minimise compatibility issues with existing computing technology.
“After Alacritech discovered that Microsoft Chimney is based on intellectual property that we developed, patented and own, we offered Microsoft a licence,” Alacritech chief executive Larry Boucher said in a statement. “Microsoft rejected licensing terms that would be acceptable to us. We were forced to sue Microsoft to stop them from continuing to infringe, and inducing others to infringe, on our intellectual property rights.”
The fewer data needed, the better the information. And an overload of information, that is, anything much beyond what is truly needed, leads to information blackout. It does not enrich, but impoverishes.
For goodness sakes, their architecture won;t go up in smoke. They’ll just have to pay for it. They can afford it.
As other have noted, this case sounds like predactory practice that Microsoft has been caught at before, and it says nothing about software patents. The situation would be virtually the same if this company’s ideas were a trade secret that they had shared with MS.
– pb
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com
It’s hard to tell whether this is what John recently referred to as a “blocking patent” or a true predatory practice.
UNPRECEDENTED
Here’s some stuff I grabbed from wiki and other thoughts. My sense is that MS, like any other company, is going to see what works and then adapt it for use with Windows. It could break after being made proprietary and not be fixable. It’s the same thing guys who build malls do. The result is the west coast mall looks like the east coast mall. What you get is a generic look and feel that reassures the consumer and is cheap to reproduce over and over. I imagine that MS saw the commercial potential in branding what was essentially free and open with some tweaks. It will be the new standard, faster, more secure than ever, more this and more that….
Andrew Orlowski did a piece this past week, Linus Torvalds in bizarre attack on open source> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/11/torvalds_attack/
Orlowski writes, “Torvalds launched a blast against OpenOffice.org, and defended Microsoft’s right to keep its binary Office formats proprietary.”
What the whole issue comes down to is security. If you believe proprietary design is more secure than open design, you may have another thing coming. Look at encryption for example.
As Bruce Schneier wrote on encryption,
“It takes the cryptographic community, working over years, to properly vet a system. Almost all secure cryptographic systems were developed with public and published algorithms and protocols.”
http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-0205.html#1
Like any other system, security involves selective thinking. There tends to be a great effort to sensor information, program against the web and make things more complicated than need be and thus more confusing. From what I know about PC security, which is limited, I believe that proprietary architecture will lead to more security compromises in the future. I don’t believe that Windows is more secure as a result of secrecy and I don’t see why it’s so misunderstood. Windows XP was promoted as the most secure OS ever and then crack, bang, wow security issues again.
Heres’s this from the XP launch
Windows XP Launch Remarks
New York City
Oct. 25, 2001
BILL GATES: Mayor Giuliani, thank you for being here today.
MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI: Thank you very much, Bill, and thank you all very much for being here today. New York City has been through the worst attack that’s ever occurred in the history of America on September 11th. We had more people lost, more damage, more sorrow that’s still falling from it than I think anyone ever anticipated we would have to suffer in the United States.
But the end result is that New York City has emerged from that and continues to emerge from it stronger, much more confident in our ability to handle this, much more confident in our system, much more convinced that we’re right and they’re wrong, that we’re right about political freedom, we’re right about economic freedom, we’re right about religious freedom. (Cheers, applause.) And that we should be very, very proud and very confident that the ideas for which we stand and the ideas for which we’ve lost so many people are the right ones and they will prevail.
I want to thank Bill very much for doing this launch here in New York City. (Cheers, applause.) Thank you. It shows a tremendous amount of confidence in the city of New York and it shows the exact spirit that Americans have, which is in part a spirit of defiance and in particular a spirit of confidence that our American system is right for us and right for the rest of the world.
So I wish you the very best of luck with it and I thank you and all of the other business leaders that are here for this launch of this new product, which really couldn’t come at a better time for the city of New York. Thank you, Bill.
(Cheers, applause.)
Bill talks to DOS Q & A (Good for some laughs) and applause!
BILL GATES: Well, it took more like six years, but certainly our users gave us a lot of reasons to say that Windows 95 simply isn’t good enough.
Well, let me herald the end of the DOS era here. I’ll just simply type “exit” for the last time in MS-DOS. (Laughter, applause.)
MS-DOS: Excuse me, Bill?
BILL GATES: Yes, DOS?
MS-DOS: Bill, I brought you the PC. I helped make Windows. And I’m running over 400 million PCs today. You aren’t going to do this, are you, Bill?
BILL GATES: Sorry, DOS.
(Laughter, cheers, applause.)
BILL GATES: Well, that movie wasn’t called 2001 for nothing. (Laughter.)
So in many ways this is a transition point. It’s the end of too many PC crashes. It’s the end of the static Web era and the start of an era where the Web will be dynamic. We’ll program against the Web. This new term, “XML Web services,” you’re going to be hearing about that more and more because Windows XP lays the foundation for that.
It goes on and on…..They’ll program against the Web? What was that all about? This is like a technical continuation of New Coke!
Let’s here from Jim and Bill Foundstone
JIM ALLCHIN: Okay. (Applause.) There are many reasons why Windows XP sets the new standard. Let’s just talk about reliability. This slide says ten times more reliable. In our testing and in e-testing, it shows 30 times more reliable, and that’s still the operating system hasn’t crashed. Some applications, business applications stopped but not the operating system. This is compared to Windows 9x, 98.
In Windows 2000, Windows XP is still more reliable, at least 20 percent more reliable in our testing.
What about performance? Windows XP is 36 percent faster running on business apps, 77 percent faster if you’re running content creation.
The system boots faster, up to 27 percent faster than Windows 98 Second Edition, and it loads apps that you’ve been using frequently 25 percent faster.
What about security? Bill Foundstone says that, “Windows XP can provide the strongest network security available.”
YEA, NOW EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY, WE HAVE THIS SUPER SECURE OPERATING SYSTEM WITH BUILT IN SECRET CODE BY MICROSOFT AND RUDY IS REALLY EXCITED ABOUT IT, STRIKE UP THE BAND! FOUNDSTONE SAID IT WAS REALLY SECURE
THE COMMAND CENTER
MAYOR GIULIANI: Thank you, Bill. Thank you very much. Thank you. Actually, there’s one point that Bill said something that I should have mentioned when I spoke earlier. The command center that was erected would not have been possible without the help of Microsoft, and many other businesses in the technology industry, all of whom devoted a tremendous amount of work over a 48-hour period nonstop.
The command center that now exists was deployed at Seven World Trade Center. It was crushed on September 11th. It was rebuilt by September 14th. And without technology, without the computers that we have there, without the connection to the Internet, New York City would not have been able to function.
So the point that you make is a very important one and the role that your industry plays in the security of America is an enormously important one, and I thank you very much.
12/20/2001 – Updated 05:34 PM ET back to reality
Windows XP contains serious security flaw
WASHINGTON (AP) — Microsoft acknowledged several serious flaws Thursday in its newest version of Windows, billed as the most secure ever, that allow hackers to steal or destroy a victim’s data files across the Internet or implant rogue computer software. It urged consumers to quickly install a free fix it offered. A Microsoft official said the risk to consumers was unprecedented because the glitches allow hackers to seize control of all Windows XP operating system software without requiring a computer user to do anything except connect to the Internet. Microsoft made available on its Web site a free fix for both home and professional editions of Windows XP and forcefully urged consumers to install it immediately.
WE COULDN’T HAVE A COMMAND CENTER WITHOUT MICROSOFT.
RUDY SAID SO AND THEY LOVE RUDY. HE WAS ON OPRAH AND EVERYTHING! OH AND BY THE WAY FORGET THAT ANTI-TRUST STUFF GUYS, YOU ARE DELIVERING SECURITY AND COMMAND CENTERS SO WE’LL FIX THAT PROBLEM IN WASHINGTON. HOW ABOUT A CONTRIBUTION? WHAT A BUNCH OF WORLD CLASS CORPORATE, POLITICAL BULLSHIT!!!
wiki stuff, may be bullshit
Today BSD is developed as a number of descendent free software projects. It is also used in countless proprietary software products, as permitted by the BSD license. For example, Microsoft used BSD-derived code (acquired from a small Scottish company, Spider) in early implementations of TCP/IP for Windows, some of which may still be in use in later versions. In addition, many of the basic command-line network utilities bundled with Windows NT-XP are direct re-compiles of BSD’s comparable programs. VIA WIKI
A source says, “I won’t swear on a stack of bibles that the “new” TCP/IP now shipping in NT/2000/XP and Windows 95/98/Me is completely free of the old code from Spider.”
BILL GATES: I get interviewed a lot. People say, “Well, you know, isn’t this a huge problem between you and Apple that you’ve got this Windows 95 thing?” And I say, “No, we’re really coming together, because until today only Apple thought Windows 3.1 was a crummy operating system. And now we agree, Windows 3.1 is a crummy operating system.” (Cheers, applause.) And some day we’ll say that about Windows 95 I’m afraid. (Laughter.) But give us two or three years before we can figure out why we’re going to have to say that. (Laughter.)
IT ONLY TOOK A COUPLE OF MONTHS TO FIGURE OUT WINDOWS XP WAS A CRUMMY OPERATING SYSTEM. WE MAY FIGURE OUT LONGHORN IS A CRUMMY OPERATING SYSTEM BEFORE IT IS EVEN LAUNCHED. THIS IS PROGRESS! GIVE THEM 2 OR 3 YEARS! WASTE YOUR TIME, NOT MINE. YOU GUYS DO WHAT YOU WANT. (LAUGHTER)
JIM ALLCHIN: Yeah, it was 12 years ago that you first talked to me about coming to Microsoft. And what did I say?
BILL GATES: You said we’ve got to get to the one code base.
JIM ALLCHIN: I said no, I didn’t think that this was the place for me. (Laughter.) I thought maybe the right thing to do was to go to a company that believed in really reliable systems. (Laughter.) And when I came out to Microsoft, you and Paul Maritz brought me over and said, “You know, there’s this new guy we just hired. His name is Dave Cutler. Why don’t you talk to him for a minute?” Of course, Dave is the person behind the VAX system.
And I went over to Dave and you may not know how Dave talks, but Dave says, “I don’t work on toy systems; I only work on real systems.” And that was the beginning 13 years ago — he had already started two years before I started there — in the history, this long journey that we’ve been on. So it’s been an exciting journey for me and the team, and today we’re unleashing that real system, a system that’s more reliable, more secure and easier to use.
YEA RIGHT, IT IS MORE SECURE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE! WHATEVER YOU SAY BIG GUYS. THIS ISN’T A KIDS TOY, THIS IS A REAL SYSTEM HERE SUCKERS. RUDY SAID WE ARE GREAT GUYS AND HE WAS ON OPRAH. SEND RUDY AND HIS REPUBLICAN POSSE IN DC A FAT CHECK HOME BOYS. OUR SHIT IS REAL BITCHIN AND WAY TOO COOL. WE GOT US A MOSLOPPOLY AND OUR STUFF IS THE BEST. TRUST US!
Notice to Government End Users. The Software and Documentation are “Real Bitchin’,” as that term is defined at 48 C.F.R. §2.101, consisting of “Real Bitchin’ (formerly ‘Radical’ items)” and as such terms are used in 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §227.7202, as applicable. Or maybe 56 C.Fsomething something. 7. Oh, and these things, too: §§§§. Consistent with 48 C.F.R. §12.212 or 48 C.F.R. §§227.7202-1 through 227.7202-4, as applicable, as well as §R2-D2 and §JOHNNY 5, locked in a beautiful metallic embrace of everlasting robot love.
Windows XP represents a land of opportunity and frankly that’s why this is such an historic moment for us and the industry.
The land of opportunity and the home of the bullshit. I’m of Irish blood and when we kill a guy he is dead for the rest of his life. Don’t bullshit me!
Did you get the point John?
This could be premature.
1) Micro$oft could end up not using this code or develop another type of code. If Micro$oft uses / develops another type of code, then Alacritech’s code becomes redundant and worthless (or at least less valuable).
2) Alacritech maybe should have waited before deciding to sue. That way they would be ensured that Micro$oft use of the code is actually in use and it is too late for Micro$oft to change.
3) The code may not similar enough to be patent breaking and Alacritech loses all around. After all, several programs use different codes to affect the same purpose.
4) If Alacritech waits until after Longhorn is launched, then it has a better chance of showing a bad faith partnership. There can be no damages if the product hasn’t launched.
4) Or any combination of the above.
An interesting opinion on when your software vendor starts to sue its competitors.
http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1752997,00.asp