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Or... like how insurance companies offer insurance if the mob burns your house down and will prosecute the culprits on your behalf.

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You realize the difference here is insurance companies don't go around lighting fire to houses, whereas Microsoft goes around suing companies for patent violations (the thing they are supposedly indemnifying you from) and funding noxious patent trolls.

Obviously, but yours was also an unfair characterization. I maintain that this is a good idea and that other companies (Google and Amazon) should follow suit regardless of Microsoft's behavior around patent litigation.

If it does turn out that Microsoft is only doing this so that they can go and sue people who are using AWS or GCP then I'll change my tune. Until then I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

Furthermore, if Google/Amazon _did_ follow suit it would be mutually assured destruction for Microsoft to sue AWS / GCP users.

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