Thanks for everyone’s constructive (and not so constructive) comments over the past week.

I think by now, everything that needs to be said has already been said by all sides. I certainly learned a lot from the community and it helped me gain a lot of new perspectives on things that I normally would not have been aware of.

Therefore, I’m looking forward to move on and contribute in other ways to the social web. Don’t worry, Boycott-Novellians, I won’t be going over to visit for a while.

If you still have something to say, you are more that welcome to email me.

First, I happen to remember that freedom software developers were the ones who were “coding alone in basements”, now it turns out that people who do “lip service” for Microsoft are the ones sitting alone in their basements, rebuffing peoples’ arguments. Isn’t it ironic?

What’s ironic to me is that for all the grief I got from the community for “shilling”, “astroturfing”, “not disclosing properly” and what not, Most of the people who leave comments here are doing so anonymously.

But it’s alright. I don’t mind. A discussion is a discussion, whether I can see your face or not.

Oh, and by the way, if you have read my blog disclaimer, you will know that everything here is my opinion, I don’t do lip service for Microsoft, and it’s very difficult to find a house here in Singapore with a basement.

Anyway, Mike claimed that he wanted to “prove a point that the small guy can win against the giant corporations.” And he achieved his goal. Microsoft needed to pursue this or risked losing the right to fight future trademark infringements. And they accomplished their objective.

Like I said, all’s well that ends well.

One last note about the whole affair that made me chuckle:

From CNET:

“We believe he’s a bright young man with great potential,” Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler said, reading from a prepared statement on Friday. “We have agreed to help redirect any traffic to his new Web site to ensure that he does not lose any business.”

And what does Mike do with his new website?

Rowe’s new Web site, which is called MikeRoweForums.com, already has more than 700 members and carries advertising banners for file-sharing service Warez P2P.

Somehow I just found that funny.

I wouldn’t call the armtwisting MS did amicably, whatever the MS spin doctors tried to make from it. At least, it didn’t work for me.

Still it may be an idea to set up a website in Holland for the programs my pet bird has written and cash $10,000 for FSF Europe.

http://www.mycrowsoft.nl

Just kidding

I haven’t actually heard of the Mike Rowe story before today. Thanks for pointing it out to me. Reading the case on Wikipedia, it seems like a classic case of both sides being overly zealous in their position. Again, it’s a matter of grey, and not black or white.

Mike Rowe’s demands for $10K for the domain name could have been interpreted as cybersquatting (I mean, he did choose mikerowesoft.com instead of mikerowe.com). But then again, Microsoft was IMO, also a bit too heavy-handed in the whole affair. However, they may have had no choice.

From Wikipedia:

Microsoft later admitted that they may have been too aggressive in their defense of the “Microsoft” trademark. Following the case it was suggested by Struan Robertson – editor of Out-Law.com – that Microsoft had little choice but to pursue the issue once it had come to light or they would have risked weakening their trademark. This view was also espoused by ZDNet, who noted that had Microsoft knowingly ignored Rowe’s site, the company would have risked losing the right to fight future trademark infringements. Had legal proceedings ensued, Robertson thought that Rowe would have made a strong argument for keeping his domain, as he was using his real name and wasn’t claiming to be affiliated with Microsoft.

I’m glad everything was settled amicably and nicely. Rowe gave up the domain to MS, he set up a new website paid for by MS, received a whole bunch of gifts, got to tour MS research facilities, and charities got donations (from Rowe’s defense fund).

All’s well that ends well.

But as much as we have our own opinions, software patents (fortunately or unfortunately) do exist, and we just have to play by the rules. And we should not feel outraged or surprised if corporations (not restricted to just Microsoft) also play by the rules. Like Matt Asay said, they will be being irresponsible to their shareholders if they don’t take advantage of any patents they hold.

I believe freedom and innovation are important tenants the western world believes in greatly (disclaimer: I am Singaporean), but then again, so is capitalism.

Ultimately, everything Microsoft does will always be judged by the community at-large, which we also have to remember, also includes Microsoft’s partners, allies, customers, and developer community.

Trust and PR is the best check and balance we have against unnecessarily excessive patent litigation from corporations today.

MS just has a bad track record in that respect. Many feel it cannot be trusted. Note that although IBM holds many, many patents it has NEVER exercised a single one against any FOSS entity, either corporate or private. It has – AFAIK – never violated a ISO license once.

That is trust.

Note that nowadays someone with a $150 device can create something that may violate some trivial invention like..

- A computer in a car (MS patent)
- Saving a filename in two different forms (MS patent)
- One click buying (Amazon)

Every single FOSS developer may run into these kinds of things – without knowing he actually violated anything. Patents were invented to protect significant investments, but hacking some algorithm you can do with a moment of enlightenment and a few lines of code.

There is a good reason why mathematics cannot be patented. And they apply to informatics too. FOSS actually boosted invention, because anyone can profit – amateurs and companies alike, just like in the scientific communion. The difference is that a good algorithm doesn’t require a lot of physical means to implement or produce. It shares these characteristics with mathematics.

Hans Bezemer