Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 18th Jul 2007 22:09 UTC, submitted by Kishe
Microsoft says software that's licensed under a new version of a popular open source license isn't covered by the patent protection deal it recently signed with desktop Linux distributor Linspire. In a posting on its Web site, Microsoft said the Linspire client software protected by the patent deal doesn't include any parts of the distribution that "comprise or include Foundry Products, Clone Products, GPLv3 Software, or Other Excluded Products." The document was published on July 5, three weeks after Microsoft struck a deal with Linspire through which Linspire's customers are indemnified against Microsoft's patent claims against Linux users.
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Member since:
2006-06-03
Erm. How is this good for Microsoft? As projects start to move to v3 (if they do). Then the value of the Microsoft patent deal will drop, If Gnome, KDE and the Kernel all move to v3, then the majority of the Operating System will not be covered by this covenant and MS will be forced to actually show their hand of patents and start sueing if they want to continue to profit from free software. At that point, all manner of hell will break loose in the corporate American world.
This is effectively an admission by MS that their computing tax will not stand up to the GPLv3.