clipped from: money.cnn.com   

Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you, maybe. Fortune's Roger Parloff reports.

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The patent owner: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer;
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The patent hater: Free Software Foundation president Richard Stallman.
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"It's a tinderbox. Patent law's going to be the terrain on which a big piece of the war's going to be fought. Waterloo is here some where." --Eben Moglen, Executive director, Software Freedom Law Center