It's weird to me that Gruber claims, like he did in a recent episode of his podcast with Dan Benjamin, that he's not anti-Google. I mean, why deny something that's so self-evident?
His arguments here are just so disingenuous.
"So if Google had acquired the rights to these patents, that would have been OK."
Yes, because Google isn't forming a cartel to stifle competition.
"It’s OK for Google to undermine Microsoft’s for-pay OS licensing business by giving Android away for free, but it’s not OK for Microsoft to undermine Google’s attempts to give away for free an OS that violates patents belonging to Microsoft?"
Yes, because Google isn't using an artificial barrier (the patent system). And because those patents are bogus. Because most, if not all, software patents are bogus. That's pretty clearly Google's stated position.
"First, the “estimate” of $1 billion was partially set by Google itself."
But there's no denying that this is by several times the largest amount ever paid for a patent portfolio.
"They’re effectively arguing against the idea of the patent system itself, simply because Android violates a bunch of patents held by Google’s competitors."
Yes they are arguing against the patent system, at least for software, as do many in the industry. There's nothing hypocritical about that.
"Google supporters claim that Google only wants to use patents defensively. But what exactly does Google need to defend against, if not actual patents Android actually violates?"
This argument betrays either a very weak understanding of how defensive patents work or a deep dishonesty of argumentation. Maybe both. This argument can be applied to the very idea of defensive patents.
It's conflicting that someone who's so obviously intelligent and often terribly insightful (not to mention witty) can be so willfully dishonest.
I'm going to back to only reading Gruber's writing on Apple, and ignoring his writing on anything else.