NI-Limits Blog

An interesting post from the Download Squad picks up on some court action presently involving Microsoft that once again goes to show not only what muppets they (Microsoft) can be at times, but by some cruel twist of fate, may also end-up setting standards for the future as far as rights to source code and other source-related intellectual rights are concerned…

"It seems Microsoft might be arguing itself into a corner in front of the Supreme Court regarding software patents. How? Well, Microsoft uses a little bit of code from AT&T to make some speech recognition magic happen in Vista. The catch? they might not have licensed this code for use overseas. So AT&T sues, claiming MS violated the patent on the code itself– saying they illegally copied it overseas, essentially.

AT&T’s position is that Microsoft is stealing the code, just as a copycat manufacturer might steal Ron Popeil’s magic Hair-in-a-Can.But the arguments get pretty tangled when the court presses the issue of what, exactly, is patented. The resulting case has Microsoft arguing a point you may not have expected them to argue; You cannot patent source code or object code. Justice Souter keeps it real by comparing code to a blueprint, and ultimately saying that the copying of code onto hard drives using this blueprint, or the mere exportation of this code for such purpose, could constitute infringement. To defend itself, MS initially tried to claim that since the physical devices used to manufacture the PC’s running said code are
all made overseas and therefore are out of US jurisdiction (nice try)."

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