Perhaps The Paperless World Isn't Such A Myth >>
<< UK To Force ISPs To Kick Casual File Sharers...
 tdicon 

News You Could Do Without

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Feb 12th 2008 6:23am




Filed Under:
boycotts, open source, patents, security

Companies:
trend micro


Trend Micro Learns That Suing For Patents On Open Source Software Can Backfire

from the don't-mess-with-the-community dept

It seemed rather bad form back in December for Trend Micro to sue a competitor claiming that its anti-virus system violated a patent for using some open source software. Not only would it likely slow down innovation in the space and allow those with bad intent to distance themselves even further from security professionals trying to stop them, it also would piss off the open source community. We've already seen that community step up in the effort to find prior art, and now Slashdot is reporting that open source supporters are starting a boycott of Trend Micro products in response to the lawsuit. It seems like yet another case of the lawyers getting ahead of the business people in deciding who to sue.

14 Comments | Leave a Comment

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments (rss)

(Flattened / Threaded)

  •  
    identicon
    angry dude, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 6:50am

    Mike strikes out again

    Mikey, don't you get it, dude, that suing another commercial entity using open-source in their products is not the same as "suing open source" ?

    I for one would never sue open source developers.. What for ? there is no money involved and nobody to sue
    Commercial entiry making money on open source code which happens to infringe on somebody's patent is a whole different story..

    With all this said, Trend Micro's products suck big time
    A bloated piece of junk

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

    •  
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 7:50am

      Re: Mike strikes out again

      I fail to see where Mike made that assertion. Suing companies that use open source software *does* piss off the OSS community, mostly because it causes FUD about Open Source itself, but also because the community is more able to see through the lawsuit and OSS developers are free to speak their mind as publicly as they like. Pointing that out seems pretty reasonable to me.

       

      [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

    •  
      identicon
      Trevlac, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 9:14am

      Re: Mike strikes out again

      They didn't suck last year. But this new 2008 software is as bad as Norton when it comes to startup.

      Does anyone know if Webroot's Antivirus compares to Trend Micro's?

       

      [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

      •  
        identicon
        Haywood, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 9:51am

        Re: Re: Mike strikes out again

        The end-all is called AVAST Free. It is free, thorough, auto updating, and has a boot-time scan, that is pretty amazing. The only thing wrong with it is you have to renew your license, again for free after a year. The only other ones I use are PCTOOLS free, good but no auto update, & Ashampoo free, ok but not truly amazing.

         

        [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

        •  
          identicon
          Mitch, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 12:05pm

          Re: Re: Re: Mike strikes out again

          AVG spanks AVAST. Better scanning no license renewal, free daily virus updates, small footprint. Its also one of the number one downloads on download.com

           

          [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

    •  
      identicon
      Anonymous Coward, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 10:08am

      Re: Mike strikes out again

      With all this said, Trend Micro's products suck big time
      A bloated piece of junk
      More accurately, many of Trend Micro's products suck. However, their free "Housecall" has saved my butt on many occasions when a machine's installed virus scanner has been compromised.

       

      [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

    •  
      identicon
      ehrichweiss, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 11:55am

      Angry Dudette is watching the wrong ballgame

      Dude, now you know why we don't believe that you have a patent: cause reading comprehension is obviously not your strong point, nor is logic.

       

      [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

    •  
      icon
      Mike (profile), Feb 13th, 2008 @ 12:57am

      Re: Mike strikes out again

      Mikey, don't you get it, dude, that suing another commercial entity using open-source in their products is not the same as "suing open source" ?

      Did I say otherwise?

      However, Trend Micro is clearly targeting the open source component of that software, and that action has triggered the community to respond. I'm not sure how you can deny that that is exactly what has happened.

      I've asked you before to take the time to understand things to respond. It's disappointing to see you choose not to follow that advice.

       

      [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    matt, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 7:42am

    Mike got it right

    I think Mike got it right. However, I boycotted their products recently as well. Unfortunately I didn't know ClamAV was as good as people said until I started being made aware from the lawsuit. ...all my previous windows customers were always pointed to TrendMicro. Oh well.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    Etch, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 2:22pm

    I don't get it

    Wait, this article is a little vague and confusing!!

    Is TrendMicro suing this other company because they are profiting from Open Source Code, which is a violation of this open source's developers' GNU license?

    Did I get that part right?

    If so, then shouldn't the developers of the OSS be responsible for that?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    Nelson, Feb 12th, 2008 @ 7:37pm

    finger pointes @ trend micro

    HA Ha

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Feb 15th, 2008 @ 6:05am

    "AVG spanks AVAST"

    AVG ROCKS!!! Never hogs resources, FREE, NO ADS, Has found java and other viruses NORTON did not find.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]

  •  
    identicon
    Joe Dirty, Jan 20th, 2010 @ 11:28am

    Avoided Trend Micro

    I am not going to even consider Trend Micro after reading this. E-mail encryption will go to someone else.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in chronology ]


Add Your Comment

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here
Get Techdirt’s Daily Email
Save me a cookie
  • Note: A CRLF will be replaced by a break tag (<br>), all other allowable HTML will remain intact
  • Allowed HTML Tags: <b> <i> <a> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <hr> <tt>
Perhaps The Paperless World Isn't Such A Myth >>
<< UK To Force ISPs To Kick Casual File Sharers...
 tdicon 
Follow Techdirt
Flattr rss rss
A word from our Sponsors...
Sponsored Resource
Essential Reading
Techdirt Reading List
Techdirt Insider Chat

A word from our Sponsors...
Recent Stories

Wednesday

1:56am: Warning Letters Under UK's Three Strikes Plan Unlikely To Be Sent Out Before 2016 -- If Ever (3)

Tuesday

11:01pm: Public Outcry In Taiwan Kills Their Version Of SOPA (5)
8:02pm: WIPO: Informal Economy Innovates In The Absence Of Intellectual Monopolies (9)
5:00pm: DailyDirt: Augmented Vision (3)
3:50pm: States Attorneys General Want Special Exception To Blame Sites For Actions Of Users (53)
3:02pm: Google, Without Admitting It Gets FISA Orders, Files Lawsuit To Challenge FISA Gag Orders (26)
2:29pm: NYPD Commissioner Blasts NSA Secret Monitoring For Being Secret (22)
1:43pm: It's Come To This: Commentators Arguing That The Press Commits A Crime In Exposing NSA Surveillance (49)
1:00pm: US Chamber Of Commerce: Bollywood Is So Successful Without Strong Copyrights That It Will Fail Unless India Strengthens Its Copyrights (46)
11:58am: Senator Lindsey Graham Defends NSA Surveillance By Arguing About Something Entirely Different (52)
More arrow
A word from our Sponsors...

Close

Email This