[geeks] Microsoft responds to question about their IP used in Linux

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Dec 11, 2006, at 8:31 PM, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
>
> Two things would happen even in the case where there really were
> Microsoft patents in Linux code:
>
> 	- 99% of the users wouldn't give a damn and would keep running it
> 	  and 0 percent of them would get in trouble unless they capitulated
> 	  against a threat
> 	- the offending code would be rewritten, and would probably end up
> 	  better, in a matter of weeks, if not days or hours
>

If MSFT were anything other than the greediest, scumbaggiest 
corporation that ever existed inside the borders of the USA, you would 
be right.

MSFT isn't talking about "code patents" they are talking about business 
method patents and similar things.  You cannot "rewrite" them, because 
the implementation is not what is patented, the idea is.

--Patrick