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[Kurt Granroth]

Alan Dayley wrote:
>> My question from the beginning of this has been "which patents?".  Does 
>> anyone know what intellectual property of Microsoft's that Linux distros 
>> are allegedly infringing on?  I've never heard anyone actually spell 
>> that out, or even speculate on it.
> 
> Neither Novell nor MS will specify the patents involved.  Giving the
> benefit of the doubt, Novell probably can't per terms of the agreement.
>  (BTW, all the terms of the agreement have not be made public, nor are
> they likely ever to be.)

According to Novell, the agreement didn't specify any specific patents
at all.  In fact, Novell won't even agree that there *are* any that apply:

http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/community_open_letter.html

> MS won't specify because, as soon as they do, FS/OSS developers will
> have the knowledge of either or both debunking them with prior art and
> writing them out of the code.  Then MS won't have a FUD club anymore.

Very true.

Kurt