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____/ nessuno on Wednesday 09 Sep 2009 00:59 : \____
> How about a fuller quote?
>
> <Quote>
> Microsoft tried to auction off some patents that they claim relate to
> Linux. Patent trolls could have bought them. Instead Open Invention
> Network (OIN) got them. Why would Microsoft wish to get rid of 22
> patents that it presumably could sue Linux over? Let's try to imagine
> what might have happened.
>
> Let's pretend you are Microsoft, and you want to be evil. Of course,
> Microsoft never would be. They are internationally known for fair
> dealing with all their competition, particularly Linux. But let's
> pretend.
>
> OK. So you are Evil Microsoft and you decide it's too difficult and
> dangerous to sue Linux yourself. Antitrust annoyances, counterclaims,
> and PR and all that. What to do with that patent portfolio to really
> cause trouble for Linux, without having your fingerprints all over it?
>
> Eureka! You could sell the patents to patent trolls, and let *them* be
> the bad guys. Is that not perfect if you are evil? Not that Microsoft
> would ever be evil. We all know there is a New Microsoft in the land.
>
> But in our imagination, let's say that because that is your wicked
> plan as Microsoft Evil, you set up an auction without offering OIN or
> any Linux players a chance to bid. You only invite folks who don't
> have a product to sell, only entities that collect patents, or what is
> known as "non-practicing entities" a/k/a patent trolls, who are immune
> from counterclaims against their products, because they don't have
> any.
>
> Would that not have been the perfection of evil? You are positively
> drooling. And who'd ever know it was evil you who was really behind
> it?
>
> Wait!! Over the hill you see... no, it can't be! Here comes Allied
> Security Trust, or AST, riding in on a white horse and scooping up the
> patents you tied to the railroad tracks, and then selling them to OIN,
> whose very purpose in existing is to protect Linux! Linux is saved!
> Curses, you cry out! Foiled again!
>
> Would that not be a wonderful imaginary tale? And here is the first
> paragraph of the press release from OIN, which will enable you to
> decide how far off my wild imagination really is:
>
> Open Invention Network (OIN), a collaborative enterprise that
> enables innovation in open source, today announced the acquisition of
> 22 Linux-focused patents that were marketed and sold by Microsoft. The
> patents were recently purchased by Allied Security Trust (AST) from
> Microsoft to ensure the patents did not fall into the hands of non-
> practicing entities (more information on non-practicing entities is
> available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll, among other
> sites) that could seek to assert the patents against Linux products.
> OIN subsequently acquired the Microsoft patents from AST.
> </Quote>
So why are Linux users so 'obsessed' with Microsoft? Must be a "disease".
"...Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the
Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM
or Linux."
--Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO
- --
~~ Best of wishes
<alanna>Saying that Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like
saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
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