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Microsoft: 'We have no legal conflict with FOSS'
May 31, 2007

Microsoft doesn't believe there is an inherent contradiction between its recent statements that free and open-source software -- including Linux -- infringes on 235 of its patents, and the veiled legal threats that go along with that, and its attempts to reach out and build bridges with the open-source community.

"In fact, one makes the other possible, especially at a time like this, when interoperability is so important. Microsoft recognizes the importance of interoperability, which is why we are doing the things we are in our products, why we created the Interoperability Executive Customer Council, and why we are listening to customers," said Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing.

Customers did not want to have to solve this problem themselves, they wanted industry leaders, their vendors, to solve the interoperability problem for them, he said.

"The only way that's possible is for companies to really be open to licensing arrangements and building these bridges that people thought were impossible before, among different providers and among different software development models," he said.

In a recent interview with Fortune, Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, claimed that the Linux kernel violated 42 of its patents, the Linux graphical user interfaces ran afoul of another 65, the Open Office suite of programs infringed 45 more, e-mail programs violated 15, while other assorted free and open-source programs allegedly transgress 68.

To read the rest of Peter Galli's eWEEK.com article, go here.


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