The Law, Microsoft, And ISPs

A couple of legally-tinged topics consider whether Microsoft's pledge not to assert patents against developers as part of its Novell deal actually do what they say, while a British lawyer contends Internet service providers should be liable when a denial of service (DoS) attack takes a website offline.

agreement would be favorable to the work they do, and keep Microsoft from potentially hammering them with lawsuits. Such a state of affairs would go some way toward healing the perpetually open rift between FOSS developers and the technology giant. However, Growlaw has statement to the FOSS community, prepare to be "an isolated, uncompensated, unimportant Free Software developer." Across the pond, a British attorney thinks some liability for a crippling DoS attack should be laid at the doorstep of ISPs. New Scientist Tech One immediate problem comes to mind. If a website is taken down through the crush of traffic from a link on Digg or Slashdot, sites both known for sending lots of people to a featured site, and the visitors had no malicious intent, could the site publishers sue the ISP over the downtime? Privacy advocates will have a field day with the notion that ISPs should be actively inspecting every packet crossing their network. Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark Murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.