>And if they did, so what? From the same section of the same article:
>
>"In addition, Microsoft gave Novell another $108 million as a "balancing payment" in connection with the patent part of the deal."

The article explains why that was done.

>
>The MS-Novell deal left a bad taste in the mouths of many people; some regard it as a clever exploitation of a loophole in the GPLv2. Nonetheless, from the quote above it's clear FOSS has a strong patent position of its own that MS can't ignore.
>
>There are few organizations in the known universe better equipped to fund legal battles than MS. If their position is so cut-and-dried why do they not simply file suit? They won't put up, but they won't shut up either. SCO deja vu.

I have no interest in SCO or any other company that Ray Noorda had anything to do with.

As for Microsoft's legal tactics, their actions recently show they prefer to settle things out of court rather than have lengthy legal battles, despite what they've said regarding code in Open Source. They may be trying to put a scare into Open Source companies, but it is a tactic used long before Microsoft came around.

I'm tired of the Open Sores community jumping up and down and screaming improper/illegal tactics when ever Microsoft says anything. Yet, the Open Sores community says nothing when things are amiss in their own house. The road goes both ways and when the Open Sores community finally admits that on a regular basis, I'll give them the respect they deserve.

>
>Anyone wanting some background on this issue can start with the high-moderated comments on SlashDot: http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/14/0018242&threshold=1

I doubt we'll get an unbiased view from SlashDot.