"Microsoft Loves Linux" is a joke

Summary: Microsoft, which nowadays does the patent shakedown against GNU/Linux by proxy, is still moaning about companies that don't pay 'protection' money (grounds for antitrust action or racketeering investigation)

"Foxconn failed to report Android dues for years, Microsoft tells court" (so says the Microsoft-connected IAM behind an aggressive/stubborn paywall).

So apparently, months after the OIN charm offensive (OIN has former patent trolls in charge), Microsoft still engages in the sort of patent blackmail it reportedly made like 10 billion dollars from. Those are patents leveraged against Linux. "Deal was hailed as a coup for Microsoft’s Android efforts in 2013, but a lawsuit filed Friday suggests the Redmond-based business has made little to nothing on it since 2015," says the text we're able to see (tweet adds more). "A lawsuit filed by Microsoft reveals years-long royalty dispute with Foxconn, adding context to its recent move out of Android licensing space..."

When Microsoft says it "loves Linux" it means to say Microsoft loves Windows, but nowadays Microsoft calls Windows "Linux". See this report from yesterday; it's all about leveraging Linux (or Android) to spread Windows. How is that love of Linux? Microsoft is so madly in love with Linux that it makes it easier to replace it and then delete it. Is that love?

SJVN responded as though he's a lawyer for Microsoft, calling the blackmailed company "toxic" and providing no further details: "The MSFT Foxconn lawsuit has little to do with Linux and a lot to do with a toxic company and it's not MSFT for once. Google "Foxconn legal issues" and "Foxconn Wisconsin" to start down the rabbit hole."

But this isn't what the lawsuit is about. Wisconsin is a political stunt that happened years later. It's a Trump stunt. So basically SJVN's logic goes something along the lines of, Foxconn is bad, therefore Microsoft is OK.

This is about the ""Android and Chrome Devices" 2013 deal," as Benjamin Henrion called it, adding that "Microsoft spinners will probably tell it is not about "Android and Chromebooks"." ⬆

Update: There's now this news report from Reuters (and no paywall this time around). To quote some confirmatory details:

Microsoft filed the complaint against Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile Ltd in the Northern District of California on Friday. It is claiming unpaid royalties for patents used in devices for clients including a top Chinese smartphone vendor.

Foxconn founder and Chief Executive Terry Gou told an impromptu news conference in Taipei that “patent infringement” is not an issue for his company, which “will suffer almost no any loss” as a result of the lawsuit.

Foxconn “has never paid any patent fees to Microsoft,” Gou said.

FIH could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement, Microsoft said the legal action was related to the royalty reporting and audit terms of a contract it signed with Foxconn parent Hon Hai in 2013.

So Microsoft's blackmail carries on, but IAM won’t call it that because Microsoft sponsors IAM. IAM is connected to Microsoft in so many ways that we have lost track and count (we wrote about it over the years). Their Web site runs Windows, some articles are from former Microsoft executives, Microsoft gives IAM money and so on. Money buys patent-centric media.

Henrion has just added: "The evil Microsoft taxing Linux with Android and Chromebooks over Foxconn lititation [sic] is back https://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-sues-manufacturing-giant-foxconn-over-patents/ … The royalties are over this 2013 deal covering "Android and Chrome Devices"..."

This links to another new article that says "Microsoft on Friday sued the Taiwan-based manufacturing behemoth Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn Technology Group, for unpaid patent royalties and failing to file appropriate paperwork."

IAM wrote about it again: "Foxconn confirms it has never paid Microsoft patent royalties under 2013 licence."

Why should it if Microsoft now "loves Linux" and has joined OIN? Maybe because nothing has really changed. Microsoft just wants buckets of money for other people's work.