"HTC has already decided to shorten its list of troubles by ponying up for a license from Microsoft for "running the Android mobile platform. Yes, that does sound ludicrous, but it's now an unfortunate fact that a major Android phone manufacturer is having to pay Microsoft royalties to use Google's operating system"
See what's really happening here is this: they're playing the same hand as the Church of Scientology plays. They know they would lose in the end, at least in most countries, but they also know very few companies can afford to fight them in court. They're playing poker with the law. This is why Google OS will blow this whole thing out of the water, not because anything have changed, but because, despite all their privacy crimes, Google have one redeeming feature. They don't back down against the Behemoth. They didn't back down against China and they won't back down against Microsoft.
So what will happen. Well I have no idea how this will play out in the USA, but I'm confident certain Key South American Governments are never going to accept the idea of Software patents and, as for India: well there the ground has already been set against Microsoft with the recent copyright bill there. My inexpert opinion is this: for the first time Microsoft will actually have to fight and they will have to lose somewhere. The interesting thing is, wherever they lose in court, that country will become a magnet for Free Software and Free Culture. Let's just hope, for all our sakes that country's no China?
