Jonathan Schwartz on Silicon Valley Shakedowns

Everyone knows that Apple has never been doing anything that scales the good guy chart past enlightened self interest. I don’t think it is a surprise that Steve Jobs threatened a patent suit.

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”

What’s more interesting is that it appears the Apple is just the only one that is honest about it. Apple says, we will sue you, we will win, so stop. Maybe it is arrogant and uncalled for, but they shoot straight — old west style. Microsoft on the other hand seems to be more into the art of the shakedown.

Bill skipped the small talk, and went straight to the point, “Microsoft owns the office productivity market, and our patents read all over OpenOffice.” OpenOffice is a free office productivity suite found on tens of millions of desktops worldwide. It’s a tremendous brand ambassador for its owner – it also limits the appeal of Microsoft Office to businesses and those forced to pirate it. Bill was delivering a slightly more sophisticated variant of the threat Steve had made, but he had a different solution in mind. “We’re happy to get you under license.” That was code for “We’ll go away if you pay us a royalty for every download” – the digital version of a protection racket.

link: Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal « What I Couldn’t Say…

It is all just the reality of business. It’s interesting, though, to hear Mr. Schwartz unveil the complexities of the decisions he was making. He seems to be a particularly well reasoned thinker with the ability to see beyond the obvious. More often than not, he was right. Unfortunately, he was unable to get Sun is a position to execute on those visions (or at least to execute enough to survive).

I look forward to more of his insights.