Author of Linux Patent Study Says Ballmer Got It Wrong

[Knut Yrvin]

When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he wasn't really saying that Linux 
violates more than 200 software patents, Microsoft followed up by 
saying Ballmer was only citing findings from a controversial study done 
this summer by OSRM (Open Source Risk Management), a risk-mitigation 
consultancy. 

The study claimed that Linux has been found to potentially violate 283 
software patents. The author of that report, however, doesn't see 
things the way Ballmer does at all.
ADVERTISEMENT

"Microsoft is up to its usual FUD [fear, uncertainty and doubt]," said 
Dan Ravicher, author of the study Microsoft cites, who is an attorney 
and executive director of PUBPAT (the Public Patent Foundation). 

"Open source faces no more, if not less, legal risk than proprietary 
software. The market needs to understand that the study Microsoft is 
citing actually proves the opposite of what they claim it does."

Les mer på:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1729908,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

- K