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Wednesday, August 04, 2004

City of Munich Freezes Its Linux Migration

Slashdot

reports about some unease concerning possible patent infringements in conjunction with the planned migration of the IT systems of the City of Munich to Linux-based solutions. See also

Expatica. So, why did the municipal administration not check that issue earlier? Even if they had decided to renew their contract with Microsoft they might have run IT procedures falling under some patents. It looks as if the whole thing is carefully plotted by FFII in order to stir things. They now enjoy a perfect media coverage for free. FFII claims to have conducted a

search for patents potentially infringed by the Munich Linux project. However, the list merely compiles dozens of patent publication numbers, some of them even for US patents surely not affecting the Munich project. No scrutiniseable explanations are given on why the mentioned patents are considered to be infringed. Many of the indications are purely speculative. And, finally, even numbers of patent applications not yet granted are given. But, nevertheless, they have got what they want: A big media coverage as well as

generating widespread FUD also in the administration of the German Parliament ("Bundestag") where the migration of some backend IT systems to Linux is also on the agenda.

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