Conspiracy?

Posted Mar 14, 2009 0:55 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (guest, #1954)
In reply to: Conspiracy? by man_ls
Parent article: Linux companies sign Microsoft patent protection pacts (LinuxWorld)

A cross-licensing agreement isn't a promise not to sue. It's an actual set of patent licenses, in both directions. In contrast, the Microsoft/Novell deal ostensibly involved a covenant not to sue and no patent licenses. In the present story, the article says there are actual explicit patent licenses.

Offering to sell something is not extortion. Taking what is yours is not extortion. My landlord threatens every month to toss me out of my home if I don't hand over $1000, and it's not extortion.

Extortion is offering to sell something that you have a moral obligation to give for free.

I find people have an amazing capacity to invent obligations of others to them, which causes them to call almost anything extortion. I know lots of people feel a moral right to use anything that's been invented, in spite of the system of exclusion we've set up, so they tend to call patent enforcement extortion.