Nothing much has changed [LWN.net]

Nothing much has changed

Posted Nov 3, 2006 17:14 UTC (Fri) by irios (guest, #19838)
Parent article: Various responses to Microsoft/Novell

It is still too early to rip our clothes and run screaming naked in the streets. More than anything it looks as though Microsoft has secured the use of some of Novell's patents (most likely in identity management) in exchange for promising to leave Novell alone and giving them some money. These patents could've really rocked Microsoft's boat if things became nasty.

In exchange for that, Novell can assure their customers that they are safe from any action against them coming from Microsoft, which many customers will see as a Good Thing. This is a just covenant between Novell and Microsoft, with a personal promise not to sue, and has nothing to do adding or substracting conditions to the GPL; I'm sure that any of Novell's lawyers understands the GPL at least as well as any of us, and knows much better than risking their rights to the code trying to keep others from distributing the same works.

So, if I'm a large business and I buy SLED or SLES today, I know that I'm safe from Microsoft, because Microsoft has just promised so. If I buy the same stuff from Red Hat or Ubuntu, then I've got no promise, just as nobody had it last week.

And somebody has mentioned this above, and I couldn't agree more: by no means will Microsoft wield a software patent against a competitor until software patents are approved in Europe. Somehow I would like them to attack right now, because that would make software patents way more likely to be defeated here in the EC for good.

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Nothing much has changed

Posted Nov 4, 2006 0:39 UTC (Sat) by mjr (guest, #6979) [Link]

As soon as Microsoft goes after Red Hat for patent infringement in GPL code, Novell loses the right to distribute the same code. So as a Novell customer you lose support for that code.

IANAL, but since anyone can claim anything, wouldn't it have to stand up in court first? (Settling with less than GPL friendly terms would of course disqualify the settler from distributing, but I don't think others, including Novell, should be affected in this case.)

In the end, the result is the same though if one of these claims goes through trial. Novell just bought some time to react at the expense of a lot of goodwill. That loss is well deserved.

Nothing much has changed

Posted Nov 4, 2006 11:40 UTC (Sat) by seyman (subscriber, #1172) [Link]

IANAL, but since anyone can claim anything, wouldn't it have to stand up in court first?

Nope. The only thing that SCO has proved in their case against IBM is that you can make any odd claim and make the resulting lawsuit drag on for 3+ years.

Nothing much has changed

Posted Nov 4, 2006 12:35 UTC (Sat) by mjr (guest, #6979) [Link]

Nope. The only thing that SCO has proved in their case against IBM is that you can make any odd claim and make the resulting lawsuit drag on for 3+ years.

I fail to see the relevance of your comment on the actual subject matter. Sure, lawsuits can take time, but until there's a court decision, it's still all allegations and no more.

Nothing much has changed

Posted Nov 4, 2006 15:09 UTC (Sat) by seyman (subscriber, #1172) [Link]

Sure, lawsuits can take time,

Note that while the lawsuit is taking place, the legal fees are going to increase. If Microsoft does go after Red Hat, they may file a claim and then seek delay after delay, waiting for the legal fees to start hurting Red Hat.

but until there's a court decision, it's still all allegations and no more.

I doubt Red Hat's customers will take it that calmly.

Nothing much has changed

Posted Nov 5, 2006 14:52 UTC (Sun) by job (guest, #670) [Link]

What we also learned from SCO was that Linux is of strategic importance to IBM and they won't take threats against it lightly. Given that Red Hat (and Novell) has some sort of Linux partnership with IBM, a lawsuit against Red Hat could quickly turn nasty.