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Microsoft Android Open Source

Microsoft Joins Open Invention Network (OIN), Will Grant a Royalty-Free and Unrestricted License To Its Entire Patent Portfolio To All Other OIN Members (globenewswire.com) 103

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Microsoft said Wednesday it had joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), an open-source patent consortium. As part of it, the company has essentially agreed to grant a royalty-free and unrestricted license to its entire patent portfolio to all other OIN members. From the press release: By joining OIN, Microsoft is demonstrating its commitment to open source software (OSS) and innovation through collaborative development. With more than 2,650 members [Editor's note: the members include Google, IBM, Red Hat, and SUSE], including numerous Fortune 500 enterprises, OIN is the largest patent non-aggression community in history and represents a core set of community values related to open source licensing, which has become the norm. "Open source development continues to expand into new products and markets to create unrivaled levels of innovation. Through its participation in OIN, Microsoft is explicitly acknowledging the importance of open source software to its future growth," said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. "Microsoft's participation in OIN adds to our strong community, which through its breadth and depth has reduced patent risk in core technologies, and unequivocally signals for all companies who are using OSS but have yet to join OIN that the litmus test for authentic behavior in the OSS community includes OIN participation."

Erich Andersen, Corporate Vice President and Chief IP Counsel at Microsoft, said, "Microsoft sees open source as a key innovation engine, and for the past several years we have increased our involvement in, and contributions to, the open source community. We believe the protection OIN offers the open source community helps increase global contributions to and adoption of open source technologies. We are honored to stand with OIN as an active participant in its program to protect against patent aggression in core Linux and other important OSS technologies." Further reading: Why Microsoft may be relinquishing billions in Android patent royalties.
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Microsoft Joins Open Invention Network (OIN), Will Grant a Royalty-Free and Unrestricted License To Its Entire Patent Portfolio More

Microsoft Joins Open Invention Network (OIN), Will Grant a Royalty-Free and Unrestricted License To Its Entire Patent Portfolio

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  • I don't understand (Score:5, Insightful)

    by andydread ( 758754 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @10:41AM (#57455764)
    Microsoft had been operating a patent shakedown against open source for a while now. Why is Microsoft doing this? Doesn't add up.
    • I want to believe they're reforming, but there's a little voice in my head screeching "IT'S A SCAM" as autistically and frantically as it can muster. Time will tell.

    • It's not the same guy at the top. Microsoft is changing.
      The same thing has been happening to Apple since Tim Cook took over, but not in a good way.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Yes, Microsoft is changing for the worse. Never before did Microsoft try to force or sneak OS updates on to people. Never before did they embed spyware and adware into their operating systems. Never before did they make the OS crippleware and forbid the user/owner from controlling their own computers.

        Satay Nutella is a scumbag and FAR worse than Ballmer or Gates.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by x0n ( 120596 )

          Yes, Microsoft is changing for the worse. Never before did Microsoft try to force or sneak OS updates on to people. Never before did they embed spyware and adware into their operating systems. Never before did they make the OS crippleware and forbid the user/owner from controlling their own computers.

          Satay Nutella is a scumbag and FAR worse than Ballmer or Gates.

          The forcing of critical updates on Windows users - who steadfastly delay updates for weeks - is for the betterment of everyone. Part of the problem of having the broadest reach with a desktop platform is that you have a fair amount of morons to deal with who can't just save their work and let WU do its job. Without this, we'd be dealing with far more malware that we currently have to deal with. Unfortunately idiots clicking "yes, please run this EXE attached to my email" who hammer through UAC prompts (or w

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward

            The forcing of critical updates on Windows users - who steadfastly delay updates for weeks - is for the betterment of everyone.

            Your opinion is acknowledged and rejected. Sorry, but that is not Microsoft's or your decision to make.

            Oh and by the way, no, it isn't. It makes everything worse. Less control over your possessions is always worse. There is absolutely no way you're going to be able to shill and spin crippleware and spyware as somehow being acceptable.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by x0n ( 120596 )

              The forcing of critical updates on Windows users - who steadfastly delay updates for weeks - is for the betterment of everyone.

              Your opinion is acknowledged and rejected. Sorry, but that is not Microsoft's or your decision to make.

              Oh and by the way, no, it isn't. It makes everything worse. Less control over your possessions is always worse. There is absolutely no way you're going to be able to shill and spin crippleware and spyware as somehow being acceptable.

              A shrewd technical analysis and firm rebuttal there, cheers. I can only assume you're not old enough to remember the days of unpatched windows boxes connected directly to the internet, spewing out thousands of connections per second across entire classes of networks, looking to spawn another copy of slammer/code red/etc. Windows on the desktop is not going away, but thanks to these update policies, the chances of another worm outbreak is pretty slim to none. Pragmatism is not always in the form you wish it

            • It makes everything worse. Less control over your possessions is always worse.

              Yes, because companies that either delay or outright refuse to update has brought us such wonderful things. Why, if everything was updated properly, we'd miss out on the wonders of botnets, and exploits that were patched 5 years ago raging through hospitals.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by atari2600 ( 545988 )

        You're right. I quit reading /. over a decade ago because I couldn't get past the narrow-minded (I was one of them at one point) comments about any company trying to do the right thing. Came back here today to see if things had changed. Nope. The guy at the top wants change and it's been happening. Despite what a very small vocal and idiotic minority (on /.) and other websites think.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by x0n ( 120596 )

          You're right. I quit reading /. over a decade ago because I couldn't get past the narrow-minded (I was one of them at one point) comments about any company trying to do the right thing. Came back here today to see if things had changed. Nope. The guy at the top wants change and it's been happening. Despite what a very small vocal and idiotic minority (on /.) and other websites think.

          Amen, brother. All that's left now is the very worst dregs of whatever reasonably intelligent, cautious and open minded community that once belonged here. I only came over to see what sort of response I'd see -- I guess it's just a habit. It's been ten years since I bothered with this place either. This announcement is just good for everyone. There's been a seismic shift within Microsoft. It's fascinating to have lived through the transition. All this time I've continued to run Linux and Windows at home and

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
            What? You're not foaming at the mouth with rage from the mere thought of MIKKKRO$OFT? You must be a SHILL!!!11

        • You're right. I quit reading /. over a decade ago because I couldn't get past the narrow-minded (I was one of them at one point) comments about any company trying to do the right thing. Came back here today to see if things had changed. Nope. The guy at the top wants change and it's been happening. Despite what a very small vocal and idiotic minority (on /.) and other websites think.

          The guy at the top is the collective shareholders.

          A thought I've been wondering is if they see maintaining an OS is profitable any longer. People are sick of updates and I suspect to see Windows fade even further into insignificance and their product base to move to a more portable platform. If only this had happened a very long time ago.

          In other news, a very early and irrelevant MS-DOS was open sourced.

          Honestly, I don't know if the company has changed, I don't know if there's a chance in the future of MS w

    • Re:I don't understand (Score:4, Insightful)

      by nitehawk214 ( 222219 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @10:49AM (#57455824)

      Step 1: Embrace

      • Step 2: Realize you cannot beat what is free
        Step 3: Try not to be extinguished
        Step 4: Adapt or die
        I don't know man but look at Windows phone, it's been dead for years. That's my own opinion, but if there wasn't a free Android OS, Windows Phone would still be alive and kicking. Same for BlackBerry.

      • Please tell me you are not this dumb. Seriously. Grow up!

    • They also do not have to license things like Android from the other members. It's likely a financial decision.

    • Microsoft had been operating a patent shakedown against open source for a while now. Why is Microsoft doing this? Doesn't add up.

      Step 1), transfer all important patents to a patent holding company subsidiary that licenses your patents back to you, and gives you all licensing profits.

      Step 2) sign up for patent sharing group, and now that all of your patents aren't "yours", they are not part of the patents required to be shared

      Step 3) PROFIT!

    • Re:I don't understand (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @11:24AM (#57455986)

      It's most likely because their useful patents life is coming to an end. Remember Patents only last 17 years, what was 17 years ago? Windows 2000/Windows ME. Take note of the compatibility level of ReactOS and WINE.

      At some point, very soon, the OSS community will be able to re-implement Windows XP's API's, and damn near everything but games needs only XP level compatibility to work. Games still need the extended DirectX API, but XP is DirectX9 at most, which covers basically every non-64bit windows game.

      So Microsoft might be looking at trying to stem some blood loss should a "Windows XP compatible OS" come out of nowhere. Good god there's multi-billion dollar multi-national enterprise businesses that would love to stop having to upgrade Windows versions, and if ReactOS could fill that with a look-and-feel on top of compatibility, Microsoft will be the first on a long list of software vendors to see their "subscription bullshit" revenue streams start to be eroded.

      The entire reason enterprises prefer subscription schemes is because it makes it less of a pain in the ass to track how many copies of AutoCAD, Adobe CC and MS Office you have. You simply pay for X many licenses of the machines you actually have, rather than paying once for the software, and then having to throw the entire machine out, software and all, because you can't transfer the license, or the obstacle to transferring the license costs a few hundred dollars in some technicians time.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Burz ( 138833 )

      Because they succeeded (intentionally or not) in killing Android with steep patent royalties and managed to get the EU to fine Google >4bn Euro for the privilege of writing Android and receiving mainly ad revenue for it. So Google is going to abandon Android now and is soured on the mobile OS market - MS has to shift its patent royalty strategy. MS probably sees opening their old/expiring patents (former Android cash cow) as a PR win.

    • It's pretty simple. As the world moves to cloud, the value of the source code for services is not as high as it once was.

      Imagine if all the source code for Office365 was posted today. You would find throughout the code innumerable references to dependancy cloud services hosted on Azure. It would not honestly be of much use to copy without also having all of those services also copied, AND the infrastructure orchestration needed to run them.

      Now, is there still value in cloud code, to learn from and draw insp

  • The only losers ... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @10:46AM (#57455804) Homepage

    are lawyers. I can't find it in my heart to grieve for them.

    • And startups. Mostly startups.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Startups can join for free, so how do they lose?

        I still think it's a trap, but I don't think this is it.

    • So. True.

      The big winners of the patent wars were lawyers. To defend against patents, you need more patents, ... and it never ends. The big losers are companies (including those who innovate, starting with startups), the winners are lawyers. But they bring nothing good.

      I was kind of thinking this would never end -- how happy I was to discover the OIN network. Well done. Being inside OIN is much safer for companies than being outside (the protection is great). When everyone is inside, only patent troll comp

  • I'm obviously not a fucking lawyer but they're clearly trying to form a cartel. As this is Winblows we're talking about, hopefully it'll be 'too little, too late' and their gapeware will die that much needed death.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No, the OIN cross licenses everything to all it's members. Joining it is free, you just have to agree to cross license all of your relevant patents as well. I still think it's a trap, but it's not a cartel.

  • Interesting but... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @11:02AM (#57455896)

    This doesn't pass the smell test. They definitely have an angle here, we just don't know what it is.

    • Re:Interesting but... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @11:59AM (#57456186)
      Perhaps it is because as they continue to transition towards selling subscriptions to their software and the like, it doesn't hurt them to join, especially if it means that they get free use of all of the IBM patents that might be useful in expanding into other service areas without having to worry about litigation. Perhaps these companies are waking up to the fact that the billion dollar lawsuits over technology patents drag on for years, often to a point where the technology isn't even relevant and that the only people who actually get anything after the smoke clears are the lawyers. Those are two easy guesses, but not necessarily good.

      After doing some additional reading, I'm not even sure if the summary is correct. If you look at the OIN website [openinventionnetwork.com] it just talks about Linux. The do have a list of all of their owned patents [openinventionnetwork.com] which does include some that were developed by Microsoft [google.com]. Perhaps they tossed a few out there as a show of goodwill, but I'm not certain that this gives every member royalty-free licenses to all of Microsoft's (or other member companies) patents.

    • This doesn't pass the smell test. They definitely have an angle here, we just don't know what it is.

      It only applies to Linux, and gives MS the opportunity to develop anything they want base don Linux without worrying about a patent infringement suit; plus could partner with OIN to fight patent trolls. A plus is invalidating a troll's claim would apply across any possible infringement, protecting their closed source business as well. They aren't going to get into a patent fight over Linux; so why not join forces to enhance your ability to destroy trolls?

      It also reduces any concerns someone using an MS Lin

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jabuzz ( 182671 )

        Ok but can we have exFAT support in the kernel now without having to download legally dubious Fuse support?

        • Ok but can we have exFAT support in the kernel now without having to download legally dubious Fuse support?

          If the only legal issues are MS patents then the rhetorical answer is a qualified yes; as someone would have to make a convincing argument to add it to the kernel. OTOH, the developers / copyright owners to fuse can become an OIN licensee and remove any legal impediments to using MS patents.

    • This doesn't pass the smell test.

      I'd say the opposite. It should be a trap, but it doesn't smell like one, and I don't even see how it can be one.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Go see a psychiatrist. Your paranoia is acting up.

      • Right because Microsoft had a "come to Jesus moment" and is on the straight and narrow with only the open source community's best interests in mind. That's what's called a delusion.

        • Sigh. The delusion is the religious who cling to ancient beliefs despite all evidence they are mentally ill.

  • Smart Move (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @11:03AM (#57455900)

    This is a brilliant move by Microsoft. This gives them full access to OIN software, without having to give anything away in return. Technically they have to allow other OIN members access to their patented software, but everyone knows nobody in the OSS community wants anything to do with M$ code, so in practice, they get everything and give nothing.

  • All those who are sceptical towards Microsoft's Open Source commitment appears to fail to realise that Microsoft under Nadella leadership is a very different company than during the Ballmer era (or the Gates era before that). Today the focus is all about subscription services and the cloud. They are making sure everything works fine with their cloud and subscription services, so they can rake in money that way. Want to move your Linux services to the cloud? Microsoft wants you to choose them instead of Amaz

    • The Business Environment has changed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by PineHall ( 206441 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @12:34PM (#57456280)
      I agree with what you are saying, however I think the business environment has changed, not so much Microsoft. Microsoft has always been about maximizing profits. Twenty years ago they were the big 800 lb gorilla. They did what they wanted to make more money. Today they are competing in a field of equals and they are trying to remain relevant with the new computing paradigms. So now they have to behave nicely to maximize profits. They decided that joining OIN was worth more than the royalties they would have collected from OIN members. I believe they will still try to collect royalties from non-OIN companies. It is all about the money.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rob Y. ( 110975 )

        What's to prevent Samsung, Asus, and the rest of the companies paying MS to use Android from joining the OIN themselves?

      • I agree with you that their actions in most cases has a busines decision behind them. I still believe Microsoft has changed during the last few years though - embracing open source in the way they have is only one of many possible ways they could have moved forward after Ballmer. Even though their open source commitment might look like a few token projects to consumers, when you start looking at their enterprise poducts you realise it goes a lot deeper than that. Like that they use git for the Windows sourc

      • Today they are competing in a field of equals and they are trying to remain relevant with the new computing paradigms.

        That's a bit much. None of the competitors have an operating system that will run everyone's crappy applications.

  • membership is likely revocable (Score:3)

    by 4wdloop ( 1031398 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @12:10PM (#57456218)

    ...so what happens to all tech that now depended on them? There must be some future protection, right? How does it work?

    • ...so what happens to all tech that now depended on them? There must be some future protection, right? How does it work?

      Patent sharing doesn't mean all the code built on the patents becomes open source. They'll still keep that source code closed.

  • Erich Andersen: "Microsoft sees open source as a key innovation engine, and for the past several years we have increased our contributions to the open source community.

    And half the time I say back (one has to pause to breath):

    Microsoft uses the word "innovation" because so many people are conditioned to assume it means "technical innovation" whereas (during the 1990s, especially) Microsoft was mainly good at business method innovation subtype: limiting their competitor's air supply through rampant violation

  • Everyone now has access to "Clippy"!

  • Linux and ExFat? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jonwil ( 467024 ) on Wednesday October 10, 2018 @03:53PM (#57457480)

    Does this mean Linux can now support ExFat? (the new file system that replaced Fat32 as standard for things like memory cards)

    • Suse can. Other distros that have an owning body joined to OIN can.

      Linux as a whole has not joined. It they have, I'm wrong and they can.

  • the Open Invention Network (OIN),

    Shouldn't that be the Open Invention NetworK (OINK)?

  • Microsoft needs Linux.
    Does Linux need Microsoft?

  • Simple, all these patents have served their purpose, everybody already paid up. All the Android vendors & others like TomTom etc etc.
    There was no more money to be made from these patents, and so making them 'free' was the only things left to do.
    Bonus points for looking like a bad-ass company; the NEW Microsoft.

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