So says Mark Shuttleworth of Canonical, producer of Ubuntu Linux. It seems Mandriva CEO François Bancilhon agrees:
"Interoperability between the Windows and Linux world is important and must be dealt with, and anything that helps this interoperability is a good thing," wrote Bancilhon, adding that "the best way to deal with interoperability is open standards."
"As far as (intellectual property) is concerned, we are, to say the least, not great fans of software patents and of the current patent system, which we consider as counterproductive for the industry as a whole," Bancilhon continued. "We also believe what we see and, up to now, there has been absolutely no hard evidence from any of the FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) propagators that Linux and open-source applications are in breach of any patents. So we think that, as in any democracy, people are innocent unless proven guilty, and we can continue working in good faith."
The more, the merrier. Just like their SCO sockpuppet, Microsoft has yet to show any tangible evidence of any patent infringement. In fact, Microsoft hasn't yet even published a list of which patents it asserts are being infringed — they're just waving their hands around and making vague threats. "Nice intellectual property suite you have here. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it."
Shuttleworth and Bancilhon are right on the mark. This isn't an intellectual-property licensing agreement; it's a protection racket.