"Intellectual property is something the free software community takes very, very seriously," said the software leader and first African national in space. "There is a perception that the free software is somehow riding on the coattails of the real industry or somehow avoids intellectual property laws."

All you need to do, said Shuttleworth, is look at how free software and open-source advocates approach open-source licenses, like the GPL. Shuttleworth also noted that these licenses aren't some community abstraction. "All these licenses are based on copyright law," he said.

Shuttleworth added that another idea that Ballmer is trying to push in his statements is the assumption that open source doesn't lead to innovation—that, in short, all open source can do is copy off the research done by Microsoft and other companies that follow the traditional commercial campus approach.

"There is a tremendous amount of innovation that happens in the open-source community. It is not simply duplicating other company's intellectual property research. The reality is quite the reverse. Today, real IP is created by open-source developers around the globe instead of the best and brightest you can hire and put on your campus."

For example, Shuttleworth said, "Look at how Internet Explorer 7 was driven by Firefox's success and innovation, and how Microsoft's virtualization is now based on Xen.

If Microsoft has any real IP issues, Shuttleworth said that he "would be delighted to work with Microsoft to resolve any IP issues they might have." Of course, "That requires them to tell us what these infringements are," he said.

Shuttleworth continued: "Ballmer is saying that Linux is not a safe neighborhood for users. He's implying that simply using open source is somehow dangerous. They need to back off on those claims. They're simply not true. Microsoft must actually state what the infringements are."

Shuttleworth said that it is not like Microsoft has any right to throw stones since they live in an IP violation glass house. "Microsoft settles an average of one billion dollars in IP claims a year. Microsoft trades on IP violations all the time. It seems to wrong for them to use that same framework against open source."

What perhaps upsets Shuttleworth the most is that, at the end of the day, Microsoft doesn't seem to realize that open source and proprietary software developers have much in common when it comes to IP laws.

"Microsoft and open source both have the same interest to create a level IP platform. The patent system is not good for anyone. It's not good for Microsoft. It's not good for the little inventor next door. It's not good for FOSS [free and open-source software]. Companies that make money by doing nothing but holding on to patents until someone creates a useful program are the real problem. It's these patent trolls that are dangers to both."

Shuttleworth said that he hopes that a day comes when Microsoft realizes that it's the broken IP system itself, and not Linux or open source, that's the real problem, the problem that all developers have in common. For now, Microsoft seems to intend to continue to trot out vague IP claims without any proof against Linux and open source.


—Steven J. Vaughan Nichols

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