Ballmer Suggests Linux Distros Will Soon Have to Pay Up

An anonymous reader writes "Via Groklaw comes comments from Microsoft's Steve Ballmer at a UK event, in which the company once again threatens Linux distributions that haven't signed up with their program. '"People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property, in a sense have an obligation to compensate us," Ballmer said last week ... Ballmer praised Novell at the UK event for valuing intellectual property, and suggested that open source vendors will be forced to strike similar deals with other patent holders. He predicted that firms like Eolas will soon come after open source vendors or users. Microsoft paid $521m to settle a patent claim by Eolas in August.'"

Comments

Re:Ballmer talking repect is like Bush talking pea

[SkunkPussy]

or Bush talking about "US leadership" on the global warming issue..

Re:Which IPs in particular?

[spottedkangaroo]

Concerning your sig, "Restore liberty and democracy to this country. Vote for Ron Paul [ronpaulhq.com]"...

I'd like to point out that he'd like to restore the republic and wrote something to the effect that democracy is a problem, not a solution: http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr012903.htm

Disclaimer: I make no claim to be for or against RP, but he seems clear on that point at least.