If the software giant Microsoft (News - Alert) has it way, free software may not be all that free anymore.


The company has identified more than 235 cases where there is an alleged patent violation and wants the free software developers to pay royalties to the company when they distribute their products to users. According to Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, and Horacio Gutierrez, the company’s vice president of intellectual property and licensing, mainstream free software - including Linux - violates numerous Microsoft patents and it’s time these software makers start paying royalties.

As the competition grows and as Microsoft’s dominance in this arena is increasingly challenged by companies like Google and Linux, Microsoft is trying to tighten a few screws on the freeware bandwagon. Free software often provides very high quality end user experience and it rarely crashes. Until now, it was believed that only small companies who couldn’t afford Microsoft’s expensive products went for free software. But a recent study shows that more than half the companies in the Fortune 500 are using free software like Linux. Also, companies like IBM (News - Alert) are actively involved in developing free software.

The conflict is in the philosophy that governs both the groups. While the people involved with the development of free software believe that software is pure knowledge and can be freely distributed, Microsoft begs to differ and feels that development of software comes under intellectual property rights. While the free software movement is heralded by Richard Matthew Stallman, the Microsoft’s battle is spearheaded by its CEO, Steve Ballmer.

Microsoft does not even feel that the patent violations are accidental. It feels that there is a systematic effort to violate its patents without giving the company any royalties. The company even pinpointed many instances to make its case. For example, in an interview given to Fortune magazine, Brad Smith explained where exactly they feel the patent violation is happening. According to the company, Linux operating system’s user interface violates 65 patents and the Linux kernel violates 42 patents. The Linux violation story does not stop here. According to Microsoft, Open Office application suite by Linux violates 45 patents and open-source e-mail applications violate 15 more patents. Other open-source software applications have violated 68 patents according to Microsoft.

It’s not as if Microsoft has suddenly woken up to the open source challenge. The battle between Microsoft and the open source arena is perhaps as old as the existence of open source technology itself. Due to the increased competition and increase in use of open source technology in recent times, Microsoft has been engaged in some busy work to counter the challenge of open source software. Recently, Microsoft signed a Linux deal with Novell Inc. that indemnifies the company against Microsoft patent claims over Linux. Dell (News - Alert) Inc. joined the deal last week becoming the first hardware vendor to do so.

Microsoft is strengthening its position in this battle and the company is trying to garner some strength while doing so. It has already made deals with hardware giants like Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Co. Ltd. The deal includes a clause that indemnifies Samsung against Linux patent claims.

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Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

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