What does the fact he used to work at Microsoft have to do with anything? I know plenty of lovely people who have or do work at Microsoft.

That there are nice people at Microsoft is hardly the point. It's naive to ignore the reputation MCSFT has developed over the years, and Myhrvold was a senior decision maker at Microsoft. While the original posters hyperbole might be out of place, the observation that Nathan Myhrvold might be following in MCSFT's aggressive, sometimes abusive, business practices is completely valid.

There are nice, clever and ethical people at Microsoft, some of them are very dear friends of mine. But ignoring the fact that some sub-criminal psychos ran the company for a large part of its history is remarkably naïve.