Could it be .net or DirectX?
Maybe I should buy Microsoft and give away it's secrets for free?
Nothing is ever "free", there is always a cost or price paid at some level. The cost paid by society for protecting and defending a monopoly like microsoft is of course a matter of debate. Modern Economics teaches that Monopolies are not good for free markets and capitalism, they are Fascist in nature. When there is no competition, no prize to win, and no reason to make the better mouse trap, then your stuck with what the monopoly delivers, good and bad.
I had no clue what .NET was, so I looked it up and found this interesting bit of info in Wikpedia;
"While Microsoft and their partners hold patents for the CLI and C#, ECMA and ISO require that all patents essential to implementation be made available under "reasonable and non-discriminatory terms". In addition to meeting these terms, the companies have agreed to make the patents available royalty-free.
However, this does not apply for the part of the .NET Framework which is not covered by the ECMA/ISO standard, which includes Windows Forms, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET. Patents that Microsoft holds in these areas may deter non-Microsoft implementations of the full framework."
Actually, I have no clue to exactly what all that that means, but the last sentence does give the bottom line.
The entire Wikpedia article is here,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework