Microsoft patent

Microsoft files a patent… “Oh No!”

Posted in IT at 12:55 am by Tyler Reguly

There’s been quite a bit of discussion in the last 24-48 hours on the fact that Microsoft has filed an “adware patent” ( Information Week | ars technica ). I felt that Kurt Wismer’s post was by far the most interesting. The post declared the submission of this patent to be unethical given that MS is in the Anti-Malware market now. This was to be expected… just as the majority of my posts seem to be “pro-Microsoft”, the majority of Kurt’s seem to be “anti-Microsoft”. Given that, I completely disagree with Kurt. Would it be unethical for an Anti-Malware company to be involved in the distribution of malware? In most cases… yes; however, I do see legitimate uses of this for Microsoft that I don’t see as being unethical.

1. This could actually be seen as a form of “Proactive Anti-Malware”. By patenting any new or unique means of delivering ads to a customer, Microsoft is effectively prevent other companies from accomplishing the same task. So a malware company comes along and takes advantage of the process that Microsoft is patenting and suddenly Microsoft’s lawyers fire off an email and prepare to go to court. This would act to deter certain companies from proceeding. Additionally Microsoft could be preparing to license the technology, allowing them to dictate the usage, providing for stricter regulations around adware distribution. Everyone is quick to jump to the negative, yet no one is willing to look at the possible positive outcomes.
2. The second reason, and more likely one, is that Microsoft is finally planning on going ahead with the ad-based versions of Office and Windows that have been discussed for the last 2-3 years. I don’t see this as malware. Is it adware, yes… but it’s not malicious or unethical. It’s providing costly software to users that can’t afford it, in exchange for them viewing ads tailored to their likes / dislikes. Users always complain that they pirate software because they can’t afford it… they’d no longer have that as a valid excuse. It would be similar to NetZero/3Web (believe were the company names). I had plenty of friends that took advantage of their ad-based free dial-up access because they a) couldn’t afford internet access or b) didn’t have a credit card so they couldn’t get dial-up access.

I don’t see any issue with Microsoft filing this patent and am rather eager to see how they utilize it. I am rather unhappy to see that, once again, everyone is jumping to conclusions about Microsoft and assuming the most negative outcome.

source : computerdefense.org