Is the Microsoft/Novell Deal a Litigation Bomb? 342
mpapet writes "According to WINE developer Tom Wickline, the Microsoft/Novell deal for Suse support may one day control commercial customers' use of Free Software. Is this the end of commercial OSS developers who are not a part of the Microsoft/Suse pact?" From the article: "Wickline said that the pact means that there will now be a Microsoft-blessed path for such people to make use of Open Source ... 'A logical next move for Microsoft could be to crack down on 'unlicensed Linux' and 'unlicensed Free Software,' now that it can tell the courts that there is a Microsoft-licensed path. Or they can just passively let that threat stay there as a deterrent to anyone who would use Open Source without going through the Microsoft-approved Novell path,' Wickline said." Bruce Perens dropped a line to point out that most of the content actually comes from his post.
Heh..Could go either way (Score:2, Insightful)
Give me a break.... (Score:4, Insightful)
People....CALM DOWN.
The world is not coming to an end. Microsoft is not coming to steal your children.
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't get it either (Score:4, Insightful)
to clear it up a bit (Score:2, Insightful)
Personally, I think Novell has the touch of death for everything it gets involved in. It's not enough for them anymore to issue grossly untested patches and releases of their own propietary Netware/Groupwise crap any longer (I'm referring to modern incarnations of Novell software, yes they used to be good a long time ago), overcharge and overprice for their software and lousy support; now they have to take a formerly good linux distro, send all the good developers and managers from it running and now create potential legal issues for the entire OSS world!
p.s. I hate Provo
Novell's just keeping Vista open to NDS/Netware (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Novell can make any deal that they want, as long as they don't try to pass any restrictions along with GPL code to their customers. In this case it looks like they are passing on the additonal benefit "You won't get sued by MS for patent violations".
As for everyone else, they are free to redistribute, burn CDs, modify the code, mix it with Ubuntu, etc. You can't violate an agreement that you are not a party to.
Re:I don't get it (Score:1, Insightful)
I think the article quoted him badly... (Score:2, Insightful)
Patent Agreement (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally think Microsoft is trying to plant a patent FUD turd inside the head of any CIO thinking of deploying Linux.
Hey Miguel de Icaza, what are your thoughts on this?
Enjoy,
Re:Moglen is talking out of his a$$ (Score:5, Insightful)
If THAT happens, Section 7 of the GPL kicks in and Novell loses the right to distribute GPLed code in SuSE. Section 7 is the 'liberty or death' clause which says that if you can't distribute GPLed code without some patent(or other) restriction being imposed on your customers, you cannot distribute GPLed code at all. The idea is to prevent code being proprietarised using legal machinery other than copyright - having someone offering GPLed code under a partial patent umbrella that effectively bars, say, commercial distribution, is exactly the sort of thing that section 7 was designed to prevent.
(My theory is that the main reason Microsoft had to offer patent protection to at least one Linux distributor was to skirt antitrust problems if it starts using patent law to crush competition. )
Re:I'll take a stab ... (Score:2, Insightful)
From Microsoft, Novell Make Peace over Linux [eweek.com]: In addition, Ballmer said Microsoft would not use its patent portfolio against any individual, nonprofit open-source software developer or against any OpenSUSE programmer whose code ended up in SUSE Linux.
You may well read this along the lines "In addition, Ballmer said Microsoft will use its patent portfolio against any individual, nonprofit open-source software developer or against any LINUX programmer whose code did not end up in SUSE Linux."
How paranoid am I (given M$s history)?
CC.
Re:Christ enough demonizing of Microsoft already!! (Score:3, Insightful)
Make a binding agreement, not limited in time or target, to never use any of their patents against any open source project.
Re:Patent Agreement (Score:3, Insightful)
Which one is right? Can you believe either? Wanna bet the future of the Linux desktop on the answer?
Re:Moglen is talking out of his a$$ (Score:3, Insightful)
No more than they were prior to the announcement.
Of course, its already a violation of the GPL to distribute a program under the GPL if it is encumbered by patents that would prevent recipients from redistributing it freely.
Re:I don't get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Either the agreement with Microsoft on patents is vacuous (because there is nothing violating Microsoft patents in the code Novell is redistributing), or Novell is not free to distribute that code under the GPL in the first place. (Now, its also possible that the patent covenant applies to non-GPL software Novell bundles with its commercial linux systems, in which case it is likely entirely irrelevant to most of the rest of the Linux universe.)