Month: July 2007

Microsoft wants to “play” in the Open Source game, but they want their own bat and ball… and they want to be able to take it home if things don’t go their way. They are the proverbial 800 pound gorilla… but, they may not be able to break the GPLv3 (Gnu Public License, Version 3) provisions that they don’t like.

Microsoft Tries to Spit Out the GPLv3 Hook

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has an article in eWeek that states: “Microsoft wants everyone to understand that GPLv3 has nothing to do with the company, its Linux partnerships or anything else Redmond-based. In other words, Microsoft is doing its best not be caught on the hook of GPLv3. Ah, Microsoft you’d love to be able to do that, wouldn’t you? Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s vice president of intellectual property and licensing, spelled it out: Microsoft is ‘not a party to the GPLv3 license, and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license.’ I’m no lawyer, but let me spell it out for Microsoft. In Section 0, Terms and Conditions, of GPLv3 we find that ‘to ‘convey’ a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies.’ Moving along, we reach Section 3, where we find, ‘When you convey a covered work, you waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technological measures to the extent such circumvention is effected by exercising rights under this License with respect to the covered work, and you disclaim any intention to limit operation or modification of the work as a means of enforcing, against the work’s users, yours or third parties’ legal rights to forbid circumvention of technological measures.’ Notice that phrase ‘You waive any legal power.’ That sounds to me that if Microsoft were to convey a Linux distribution like Novell’s SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) to a customer and some of the included code was covered by GPLv3, Microsoft’s Linux patent threats go right down the toilet.”

I suspect we will be hearing about this issue for some time. And, I imagine Microsoft will be wrangling with it back and forth. Will this affect their new protection racket scheme? I think ultimately, it will!

XBox 360’s are failing right and left. It is so bad that Microsoft has decided to extend the warranty out by three years and pay for fixing the systems, including shipping!

Microsoft to Pay Consumers for Bad Xbox 360s

“Microsoft announced today they are extending all Xbox 360 warranties to three years, a policy that not only applies to new consoles but retroactively, as well. f you’ve had to pay for Microsoft to repair the red ring issue in the past, they will pay you back. At 2:30 p.m. PST, Microsoft will hold a teleconference to announce this. ‘As a result of what Microsoft views as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, the company conducted extensive investigations into potential sources of general hardware failures,’ said the company in a statement. ‘Having identified a number of factors which can cause general hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console, Microsoft has made improvements to the console and is enhancing its Xbox 360 warranty policy for existing and new customers.'”

Don’t you love the term “Blogosphere?” Yeah, right! Anyway, Roch Smith, Jr. has long provided a blog aggregator for Greensboro, NC blogs at Greensboro101.com – now he has “branched out” to provide the same kind of service to the world at large! I used Greensboro101 daily to keep up with local bloggers and topics, but now, the service is available to the world! I told Roch that he may be the next “Kevin Rose!” We’ll see… but it is cool tech! Way to go, Roch! Check it out at:

https://www.we101.com

You can get the same as Greensboro 101 has by bookmarking this link:

https://www.we101.com/GreensboroNC

Check out why Greensboro is known as “Blogsboro!” Here’s to We101!

If Google likes a company… it just buys it!

Google Acquires GrandCentral

“If there is anything profitable on the Internet, Google will definitely want a piece of that action! With the advent of mobile phones that offer more and more Internet features, this has become a profitable business over the years. Now, according to a Reuters report, Google Inc. has acquired GrandCentral Communications. GrandCentral Communications is a start-up that lets users manage their existing phones and voice mailboxes over the Web as if they were a single account. Based in Fremont, California, GrandCentral is one of those companies, which are using Web-based software to voice calls over the Internet. The advantage in these methods is that the user can simultaneously with regular phones. GrandCentral’s founders, Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, have a history of being noticed by Internet giants. Prior to this, they were running Web-calling pioneer Dialpad Communications, which was acquired by Google’s biggest competitor, Yahoo Inc. in June 2005.”