>>If MS won't detail their allegations then the issues simply cannot be meaningfully discussed.
>
>Not really. Microsoft may not want to discuss it publically, but will do so with specifc companies. I didn't get anything from the article that they won't do that.
>
>>Do you have even one shred of evidence to back this assertion? My own suspicion is that they reached a blanket agreement not to prosecute each other, without any specifics. IOW to prevent the "patent Armageddon" as discussed in the article.
>
>None. I'm just guessing, but it could have been done how you said.

In the companion blog he does point out that MS says they discuss the particulars of the patents with the individual companies. What that means exactly, I'm not sure, because I suppose that whoever they are discussing it with pretty much has to take MS at it's word about what is going on under the hood.

I am one of those who thinks that patents for software were entirely due to the patent office having no idea what they were dealing with. Put under a microscope, I think a lot of software patents would fall.