OSNews > Thread > "RE: It's a more complicated case than that" by lemur2

Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 10th Jul 2007 18:12 UTC, submitted by deanlinkous

"Now that Microsoft has declared itself untouched by any GPLv3 terms, everyone is trying to figure out if they have a leg to stand on. There is a whole lot of analysis going on, with some wondering if Microsoft is a distributor of software under GPLv3 by means of the voucher distribution and others wondering just what those vouchers included."

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RE: It's a more complicated case than that

by lemur2 on Wed 11th Jul 2007 00:17 UTC in reply to "It's a more complicated case than that"

Member since:
2007-02-17

I suppose that even if the Groklaw argument is correct, Microsoft and Novell could get out of it by insisting that the coupons are only good for the existing and now shipping Novell Linux distribution, and security updates for that distribution, and then Novell would keep any GPLv3 code out of it, saving it for the new release. The coupons wouldn't be good for the new release. Then Microsoft wouldn't be in effect selling GPLv3 code.

On the other hand, Novell might be tempted not to play; it might be in their interest, now that the deal is signed but Novell will need GPLv3 code, to ensnare Microsoft in a gotcha.

Novell have already said that their next release will include GPL v3 code.

http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/92416

The easiest thing for both Microsoft and Novell to do now is to drop the deal.

The best outcome (for nearly everyone) would be for Microsoft to join the OIN and the Patent Commons, trade their patents and its own, reveal its networking protocol as the EU wants them to do, implement a proper ODF solution in Office 2007, and happily join in all the open goodness.

I can't see the best outcome happening, myself.

So I guess the most likely is that the Novell/Microsoft deal will be scrapped, and Microsoft will come up with yet another strategy to try to kill FOSS.

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