Published at LXer:

Microsoft initially started this patent crusade about 3 years ago, and after the initial wave of accusations the Redmond giant seemed to slumber. All was well for a while. Sure, we all felt as though Novell, Xandros, and Linspire had sold their souls to Satan, but we didn't really care. There were no real effects of the deals seen. Microsoft claimed that 235 patents had been violated, but to date they have yet to say who violated those patents and in what way. To me, this seems like a massive FUD campaign. What has not yet been asked of Microsoft is this: who will you hold responsible should the Linux kernel itself contain the IP violations? Are you really going to go to tens of thousands of kernel contributors, take all of them to court, and then proceed to sue all of them? Such an action would completely destroy Microsoft's public image, and I don't think that's the type of blunder from which you could recover.

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