Perens blasts Microsoft/Novell 'protection racket' (Linux-Watch)

The Microsoft boss who forked out the cash that went Novell's way will be under some pressure at some point (if they have not left for other things by then) to make good on the patent threat against Linux. But the business decision to actually do this based on the likely negative public-relations impact this will have can be left to another time. My take on this is that for Microsoft to openly take Red Hat or smaller Linux fry to court over patent infringements they will have to be in a more desperate competitive situation than they now are. That doesn't mean they won't want to use a bit of arm twisting behind the scenes - but keeping this out of the public eye probably won't derive the patent revenue needed to justify the cost of the Novell deal.

To really know what is going on here we need to go beyond the nonsense that a corporation such as Microsoft or Novell has a single voice, view and interest. What we see in practice is a number of individuals within these companies competing for their own positions, with different areas of knowledge and personal agendas not always entirely consistent with the interests of their employer. Organisations can sometimes be defeated through head on confrontation as we are very likely to see in the IBM v SCO case. Another approach is to undermine a competing organisation by recognising that personal interests within it diverge, and by finding an approach to make these interests diverge further to the point where your opponents are divided amongst themselves. This also explains Microsoft's actions in creating patent covered and patent threatened camps.

To counter this Linux advocates may want to find scenarios in which Microsoft's need to use GPL licensed code (e.g. as with their services for Unix product) becomes unlicensed, or to establish collaborative legal opposition and funding to counter attempts to plunder small Linux companies using patent threats. If there are going to be patent suits it is in our interest that they be in the open for the public relations impact, and well enough funded and represented. As I see this defending free software against patent suits is the kind of activity a number of smart lawyers at the beginnings of their careers will have an interest in doing pro-bono work for in order to gain a reputation.