Microsoft possibly to sue RedHat?

[Rahul Sundaram]

Marc Wiriadisastra wrote:
> http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2200717/microsoft-sharpens-aims-patent
> 
> "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 at a company event in London discussing online services in the 
> UK.
> 
> Is this going to affect Fedora indirectly?

(Speaking for myself)

We can only speculate on what is planned.  Depends on whether this is 
marketing FUD or legal action, it can affect everyone involved and not 
just Fedora. Note the careful use of "People who use Red Hat" and not 
Red Hat itself. Also the comments were made in London and not U.S and 
that's important because different regions have difference laws on what 
constitutes false advertising.

This one has the entire talk and you can see for yourself how well this 
plays into the Microsoft Novell patent deal earlier.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Scrambling_to_Explain_Ballmer_Comment_on_Red_Hat_Linux/1191963805

Some other relevant links

http://tieguy.org/blog/2007/10/10/on-joe-on-patents/
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2193713,00.asp
http://www.press.redhat.com/2007/05/14/deploy-with-confidence/

Rahul