Messages in this thread |  | | Date | Sun, 01 Oct 2000 13:39:06 -0600 | From | "Jeff V. Merkey" <> | Subject | Microsoft Withdraws Linux NTFS Threats |
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I will again be able to offer these NTFS tools to repair NTFS partitions. Please begin reforwarding requests from folks with trashed disks to me, and I'll be able to assist folks. Microsoft has apologized and withdrawn their statements.
We are very happy this thread ended on a happy note, instead of in court. Microsoft will take no action against us for NTFS development on Linux, which can now proceed without concern.
Jeff
Microsoft drops lawsuit threat Orem company says software giant apologizes for miscommunication
09/30/2000
By PAT CHRISTIAN
The Daily Herald
OREM -- The CEO of a local computer company says Microsoft has backed off on a threat to sue his Orem company over alleged violations of intellectual property rights.
"Their attorney, Linda Norman, called us Thursday night and issued an apology," Jeff Merkey, CEO of Timpanogas Research Group in Orem, said in a phone interview from the Networld Interop trade show in Atlanta on Friday. "She assured our attorney, Andrew McCullough, that there will be no lawsuit."
Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said he couldn't immediately speak of the agreement between Bill Gate's company and Timpanogas.
However, he did say, "There is no truth there is a lawsuit, but Microsoft does take its (intellectual property) rights very seriously."
"It all kind of got out of proportion," Merkey said of the threats. He spoke about them only after some of his private e-mail was intercepted and posted on the Internet.
Timpanogas is a corporation formed by Merkey and other former Novell employees to develop networking, clustering and storage software solutions. The company had been working with Microsoft engineers on Timpanogas network file system products for Microsoft's Windows NT 2000.
Development involved Microsoft intellectual property. Like a lot of software companies, Timpanogas was also working with other operating-system developers that Microsoft considers competitors, such as Linux, developing Timpanogas network products that would run with Linux.
"They (Microsoft) basically gave us a license to build some tools to run on Windows NT 2000," Merkey said.
At one point, Timpanogas wrote some conversion tools to convert NetWare and Linux file management systems and were giving them to Microsoft.
But he said they also gave them to some Microsoft customers who were using the Microsoft network file systems on Linux.
But Merkey said this and his e-mail communications with Andre Hedrick, a Linux disk engineer, ruffled Microsoft's feathers.
"Microsoft has threatened us with litigation due to our support of Linux NTFS development, and we have dissolved our NTFS licensing agreements with Microsoft...," Merkley wrote in one of his e-mails.
Merkey said he has no idea how it happened, but their e-mails first were posted on an Internet weekly Linux newsletter and reposted Tuesday on Slashdot.org.
Merkey said Norman described the fracas as "an apparent miscommunication. And she also said 'please don't post those e-mails.' "
Pat Christian can be reached at 344-2556 or at pchristi@heraldextra.com
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