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Is the Microsoft/Novell Deal a Litigation Bomb?
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Nov 03, 2006 04:46 PM
from the pengui-bomb dept.
from the pengui-bomb dept.
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.
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Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Microsoft is entering into an unusual partnership with Novell that gives a boost to Linux, people familiar with the companies tell WSJ.com. From the article: 'Under the pact, which isn't final, Microsoft will offer sales support of Suse Linux, a version of the operating system sold by Novell. The two companies have also agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft's Windows on their computers. The two companies are expected to announce details of their plan today at a press conference in San Francisco. In addition, Microsoft won't assert rights over patents over software technology that may be incorporated into Suse Linux, the people said. Businesses that use Linux have long worried that Microsoft would one day file patent infringement suits against sellers of the rival software.'"
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Ballmer Says Linux "Infringes Our Intellectual Property" 820 comments
Stony Stevenson writes "In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property." From the ComputerWorld article: "In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux 'uses our intellectual property' and Microsoft wanted to 'get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation.'" His exact wording is available at the Seattle Intelligencer, which has a transcript of the interview. Groklaw had an article up Wednesday giving some perspective on the Novell/Microsoft deal. Guess we'll have something to talk about in 2007, huh?
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I don't get it (Score:4, Interesting)
Is this threat a software patent one? If so, how does this deal change the threat - if the patents already exist, couldn't they be used just as easily without the deal as with it?
I'm no lawyer, I don't swim in corporate mega-deal circles, and I didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so it's possible (probable, even) that there's something obvious here that I'm missing. Can someone who knows more about it elaborate for me? Because as it stands, I don't see how MS controlling one licensing path for OSS can suddenly mean that all other methods of acquiring OSS become illegal.
Re: (Score:2)
It makes you wonder whether or not Novell will be in compliance with the GPL. If not, they won't even have the rights to be a Linux vendor.
Re:I don't get it (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Moglen is talking out of his a$$ (Score:5, Insightful)
If THAT happens, Section 7 of the GPL kicks in and Novell loses the right to distribute GPLed code in SuSE. Section 7 is the 'liberty or death' clause which says that if you can't distribute GPLed code without some patent(or other) restriction being imposed on your customers, you cannot distribute GPLed code at all. The idea is to prevent code being proprietarised using legal machinery other than copyright - having someone offering GPLed code under a partial patent umbrella that effectively bars, say, commercial distribution, is exactly the sort of thing that section 7 was designed to prevent.
(My theory is that the main reason Microsoft had to offer patent protection to at least one Linux distributor was to skirt antitrust problems if it starts using patent law to crush competition. )
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
No more than they were prior to the announcement.
Of course, its already a violation of the GPL to distribute a program under the GPL if it is encumbered by patents that would prevent recipients from redistributing it fre
Re:Moglen is talking out of his a$$ (Score:4, Informative)
No, but patent protection may put you in a position where you can't distribute under the GPL, even if there's no money involved.
Read the above very carefully. What is says is that if you sign an agreement that puts any restrictions on your distribution or on subsequent redistribution of a program licensed under the GPL, then you cannot distribute the program at all (because you can't place additional restrictions on redistribution or derived works of GPLed code).
Parent
Re: (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: (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 li
I'll take a stab ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I'll take a stab at this one, but I might miss a few points.
1. Microsoft announces agreement with Novell for Suse, and says they won't pursue any patent claims against them (and quite possibly, only them).
2. Suse feeds back technologies to the rest of t
Heh..Could go either way (Score:2, Insightful)
Well, gosh if it "just works"... (Score:2)
Acceptable?
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:Give me a break.... (Score:4, Funny)
Microsoft: I am altering the deal, pray that I do not alter it any further.
Cheers
Parent
WTF is "the Vole"? (Score:2)
I was waiting for this to happen (Score:3, Interesting)
As for me, I am in India, I can keep laughing whenever talk about software patents happen.
I don't get it either (Score:4, Insightful)
That's Not the Real Article! (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Is the deal in conflict with GPL? (Score:5, Informative)
Novell's just keeping Vista open to NDS/Netware (Score:4, Insightful)
Bad read (Score:3, Informative)
Besides, hasn't the SCO thing proven that suing your customers is not a good idea (despite what the music industry is up to). If MS sues Citigroup for using Red Hat, then I'd put my money on Citigroup.
And to quote direct from Steve Balmer's mouth... (Score:4, Informative)
I'll let you draw your own conclusions... but he is definitely banging the old "Linux infringes our patents" FUD drum...
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: (Score:3, Insightful)
Which one is right? Can you believe either? Wanna bet the future of the Linux desktop on the answer?
this "patent deal" is not GPL compatible: (Score:5, Informative)
This means that , should MS enforce its patents on other open source companies, not even Novell can distribute GPL programs covered by the same patents.
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.