Why Microsoft Won't List Linux Patent Violations

Microsoft wants money from Linux users for software patent violations. They say how many patents Linux violates (235), but they will not say what these patents are. Is it because they are afraid the violations could be easily fixed?

It is much more in Microsoft’s benefit to have the open source community in “its debt,” so to speak, paying “royalty fees” and constantly under fear of being shut-down than it is for Linux and other open source projects to be 100% clean and out of legal quagmires. It makes too, in a twisted sort of way. If you can’t get everyone to buy your products, why not make money off of those that don’t as well?

Linus Torvalds responded to Microsofts claims:

Can you get a list of which ones? Before that, it’s just FUD, and there’s not a whole lot I can say or do. Is there prior art? Are they trivial and obvious to one skilled in the art? Would we need to work around them? We don’t know, because all I’ve heard so far is just FUD.

If MS actually _wanted_ us to not infringe their patents, they’d tell us. Since they don’t, that must mean that they actually prefer the FUD.