Microsoft Getting Paid for Patents in Linux?

kripkenstein noted an Interview with Jeremy Allison where the interviewer asks 'One of the persistent rumors that's going around is that certain large IT customers have already been paying Microsoft for patent licensing to cover their use of Linux, Samba and other free software projects.' and Jeremy responds "Yes, that's true, actually. I mean I have had people come up to me and essentially off the record admit that they had been threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free software that they were using [...] But they're not telling anyone about it. They're completely doing it off the record."

Comments

fuck IP and MS and everybody

[GodLogiK]

fucking IP bullshit, people patent stuff just for patenting it so they can rape people later maybe someone should shoot them in the motherfucking head.

Re:fuck IP and MS and everybody

[Joebert]

Quit being a fucking crybaby & find somthing to patent then follow through with the exaustive processes required to patent it, then come back here & whine.

stupidity

[phrostie]

does Ms have a patent on Stupidity, because that is what they are paying for.

Nothing overt found in quick search.

[twitter]

I'm nowhere near a fanboy for Microsoft (quite the opposite, if you read my posting history)

A quick Google search does not refute that. Blaming users for Microsoft's abominable security (in 2003) is the only regretable thing I found.