Wouldn't this draw anti-trust battles? Since complying with EFI signing is against the license of one of the only other major alternatives to Windows, this would not bode well for Microsoft.
Could be -- it sounds like a possible "tie-out" (a variation on tie-in). AFAIK There haven't been many tie-out cases, but as antitrust litigator George Gordon [1] put it a few years back, "The term “tie out” is often used to refer to arrangements in which a license prohibits a licensee from dealing in and/or developing competing, noninfringing technologies. [Footnote omitted] Such arrangements have been found to be intellectual property misuse and could form the basis for an antitrust claim as well." [2]
If MS were to do something like this, I imagine Gary Reback [3], its nemesis in previous antitrust battles, would be all over it ....
> Wouldn't this draw anti-trust battles? Since complying with EFI signing is against the license of one of the only other major alternatives to Windows, this would not bode well for Microsoft.
And who do you expect to pursue this anti-trust?
The US government?
Oh, I didn't realize you were joking! ha ha, funny.
The US government is owned by big corps, MS being one of them. Something really weird has to happen for them to turn against their corporate masters. (And don't compare it to the previous anti-trust case - at the time, microsoft wasn't lobbying and paying, sorry, donating to, politicians from both parties)
Could be -- it sounds like a possible "tie-out" (a variation on tie-in). AFAIK There haven't been many tie-out cases, but as antitrust litigator George Gordon [1] put it a few years back, "The term “tie out” is often used to refer to arrangements in which a license prohibits a licensee from dealing in and/or developing competing, noninfringing technologies. [Footnote omitted] Such arrangements have been found to be intellectual property misuse and could form the basis for an antitrust claim as well." [2]
If MS were to do something like this, I imagine Gary Reback [3], its nemesis in previous antitrust battles, would be all over it ....
[1] http://www.dechert.com/george_gordon/
[2] http://www.dechert.com/library/Analyzing%20IP%20License%20-%...
[3] http://www.garyreback.com/garyreback.html