Florian Müller (author)

Florian Müller (born 21 January 1970 in Augsburg, Germany) is an app developer[1] and an intellectual property activist. He consulted for Microsoft and writes the FOSSPatents blog about patent and copyright issues.[2][3] From 1985 to 1998, he was a computer magazine writer and consultant for companies, helping with collaborations between software companies. In 2004 he founded the NoSoftwarePatents campaign and in 2007 he provided some consultancy in relation to football policy.

For other people with the same name, see Florian Müller.

Software industry and computer books

In 1985, Müller started writing articles for German computer magazines.[4] A year later, at age 16, he became Germany's youngest computer book author.[5]

From 1987 to 1998, he specialized on publishing and distribution cooperations between US and European software companies. He initiated and managed such alliances in various market segments, including productivity software, utility software, educational software, and computer games. As a consultant to and representative of Blizzard Entertainment, Müller was involved in their marketing campaigns.

In 1996, he co-founded an online gaming service named Rival Network,[6] which in early 2000 was acquired by the Telefónica group. From 2001 to 2004, Müller advised the CEO of MySQL AB,[7] developer of the namesake open-source database management software product.

Campaign against EU software patents

In 2004, Müller received the support of corporate sponsors 1&1, Red Hat and MySQL for launching NoSoftwarePatents.com, which opposed the European Commission's proposed directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.[8] Following several years of intensive lobbying by many parties, this proposed directive was rejected by the European Parliament on 6 July 2005, with 648 out of 680 votes cast.[9][10]

For his political activities, Müller received several awards in 2005. A leading publication for intellectual property lawyers, "Managing Intellectual Property", counted Müller – along with the Chinese vice premier Wu Yi – among the "top 50 most influential people in intellectual property"[11][12] (renominated in 2006[13]). IT-focused website Silicon.com listed him among the Silicon Agenda Setters.[14] A jury of EU-focused weekly newspaper "European Voice" elected Müller as one of the "EV50 Europeans of the Year 2005", and handed him the "EU Campaigner of the Year 2005" award.[15] Jointly with the FFII, Müller received the "CNET Networks UK Technology Award" in the "Outstanding Contribution to Software Development" category.[16]

Football policy

After more than 20 years in the IT industry, Müller became involved with football (soccer) politics in 2007. He advised the Spanish football club Real Madrid with respect to a European Union policy-making initiative concerning professional sports.[17][18][19]

Google

Oracle v. Google

In January 2011 Müller published an article suggesting that "evidence is mounting that different components of the Android mobile operating system may indeed violate copyrights of Sun Microsystems, a company Oracle acquired a year ago." and presented what he believed was copyright infringing material,[20] an article which was heavily criticized by two technical bloggers. According to Ed Burnette, a ZDNet blogger, Google published those files on its web site to help developers debug and test their own code.[21] ArsTechnica's Ryan Paul also said that these findings in the online codebase are also not evidence that copyright infringing code is distributed on Android handsets.[22] Two days after his original assertions Müller claimed to have found the files in the official source availability packages of device makers Motorola, LG and Samsung.[23] The lawsuit ended with both parties agreeing to zero dollars in statutory damages for a small amount of copied code, so that Oracle could appeal.[24]

In April 2012, Müller said he had been hired by Oracle to consult on competition-related topics including FRAND licensing terms.[25] In a court filing in the Oracle v. Google case, Oracle stated that it paid Florian Müller as a consultant.[26][27] Müller said "In April, I proactively announced a broadly-focused consulting relationship with Oracle, six months after announcing a similar working relationship with Microsoft".[27]

License violation accusation

Müller amplified[28] a Huffington Post article by Edward Naughton, an intellectual property lawyer[29] who has previously represented Microsoft,[30][31] who suggested that Google likely violated the GPL by copying Linux header files. The accusation was dismissed by Linus Torvalds, the original author and chief architect of the Linux Kernel.[32]

Microsoft and Oracle consulting

After pressure to disclose from the free software community,[33] Müller acknowledged that he consults for both Microsoft and Oracle.[34]

References
  1. "FOSS Patents". Fosspatents.com. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  2. FOSS Patents (blog), Google.
  3. Tu, Janet I. "Microsoft asks ITC to compel Google to provide info in BN case". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  4. "Florian Müller's authorship", C64-Wiki (page) (in German), DE.
  5. "BuchJournal", BuchJournal (in German) (1): 91, Spring 1988.
  6. "Online-Spiele ohne Grenzen", Focus (article) (in German), DE: Ralf Gruber.
  7. "Investors", Company (corporate website), MySQL, January 2004, archived from the original on 11 December 2004
  8. "Torvalds comes out against EU patent directive", MacWorld (article), November 2004.
  9. "European Parliament rejects computer‐implemented inventions directive", Wikinews (article) on European Parliament's rejection of proposed CII directive.
  10. Daily Notebook (report), European Parliament, 6 July 2005
  11. "Revealed: 2005's most influential people", Managing IP (article).
  12. "Anti-patent campaigner hailed as IP hero", ZDNet (article), 20 July 2005.
  13. "The most influential people of 2006", ManagingIP (subscriber content).
  14. "Politicos", Agenda Setters 2005, Silicon, 2005, archived from the original on 27 September 2011.
  15. "Winners", Awards, European Voice, 2005, archived from the original on 11 December 2009.
  16. "Software patents campaigners honoured", ZDNet (article), UK, 28 September 2005.
  17. "Gönner und Geldwäscher", Der Spiegel (article) (in German), DE.
  18. "Comercialización del fútbol europeo: el otro alegato", Deutsche Welle (article) (in Spanish), DE.
  19. "Fútbol europeo: el papel del dinero", Deutsche Welle (article) (in Spanish), DE.
  20. Mueller, Florian (21 January 2011). "FOSS Patents: New evidence supports Oracle's case against Google". Fosspatents.blogspot.com. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  21. Burnette, Ed (21 January 2011). "Oops: No copied Java code or weapons of mass destruction found in Android". ZDNet. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  22. Cheng, Jacqui (22 January 2011). "New alleged evidence of Android infringement isn't a smoking gun". Ars Technica. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  23. Mueller, Florian (23 January 2011). "Android device makers distribute Oracle code online (Motorola, LG, Samsung)". FOSS Patents. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  24. Niccolai, James (20 June 2012). "Oracle agrees to 'zero' damages in Google lawsuit, eyes appeal". Retrieved 23 June 2012.
  25. Mueller, Florian (18 April 2012). "Oracle v. Google trial: evidence of willful infringement outweighs claims of approved use". Google. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  26. Cooper, Charles (17 August 2012). "Oracle names bloggers, others it paid to comment on Google trial". CNet. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  27. "Oracle confirms paying a blogger but Google names no-one", News, UK: BBC.
  28. Mueller, Florian (17 March 2011). "Google's Android faces a serious Linux copyright issue (potentially bigger than its Java problem)". FOSS Patents. Google. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  29. Naughton, Edward J. "Google's Android Contains Legal Landmines for Developers and Device Manufacturers". The Huffington post. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  30. "Open Source Report: Lawyer behind Android infringement claim has Microsoft ties". Network world. 18 March 2011. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  31. "Naughton's Microsoft bona fides". Linux Weekly News. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  32. Proffitt, Brian (21 March 2011). "Android: Sued by Microsoft, not by Linux". IT world. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  33. Jones, Pamela. "Oracle and Google File Paid Writers Lists". Groklaw. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  34. Cheng, Roger (24 May 2012). "Microsoft legal win over Google may signal ceasefire | Mobile – CNET News". News.cnet.com. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
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