Dave Winer: On the Microsoft Threat to Independent Software. Now I’ve been in the “ecosystem” defined by Microsoft and the companies they subsumed for over 20 years, and I’ve never seen them be this bold, nor stoop to such a low level. The patent threat that Behlendorf mentions was confirmed by Mundie and Stutz. It’s changing my thinking about the road ahead. It’s going to be a lot rougher than I thought.
I was at the debate, and the Q&A that followed, and I missed the import of what Dave has noted here.
Microsoft’s use of patents has been, to date, mostly defensive. If the company is now going on the offensive, using its patents to squash innovation simply by threatening (and suing) small, independent developers who have neither the patent portfolios (however bogus) nor the financial resources to fight back, this is a threat to the entire ecosystem.
The war over “intellectual property” — kicked off in earnest in 1998 by Hollywood and the record companies — now includes the company that monopolizes desktop computing. Microsoft, like the entertainment companies, will use bad laws to their fullest to prevent any innovative threat to their businesses.
This war is ultimately aimed at everyday folks. Once the big guys have squashed the innovators and can extract their taxes from us all, they will be the only winners. Everyone else — including you and me — will lose.
Are you ready to fight for your rights? If you don’t, you will surely lose them.