This clears nothing up [LWN.net]

This clears nothing up

Posted Nov 28, 2006 1:33 UTC (Tue) by pzb (subscriber, #656)
In reply to: This clears nothing up by jtc
Parent article: Novell's IRC session on the Microsoft deal

> Does the deal with MS cover future work at Novell, such as their work
> with MS to make Linux and Windows more interoperable? (E.g., that MS
> will not sue Novell for working with them to make Linux and Windows more
> friendly towards each other [...], because of a resulting perceived
> patent violation.)

While the deal does include a technical cooperation agreement that helps make sure that Free/Open Source software and Microsoft products work together better, it does not give Novell a license to any of Microsoft's patents. It also does not protect Novell from suit by Microsoft.

> Does the deal cover any of Novell's other software (whether commercial or
> open source) that is not part of the OpenSUSE release?

According to Novell, the agreement includes "percentages of Novell's Open Platform Solutions and Open Enterprise Server revenues." This would seem to imply that at least OES is covered in addition to the SUSE products. Also, in the original press release, it says "other covered products from Novell" are covered by the patent agreement, which implies that more than just SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is covered.

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This clears nothing up

Posted Nov 28, 2006 17:16 UTC (Tue) by mrfredsmoothie (subscriber, #3100) [Link]

> While the deal does include a technical cooperation agreement that helps
> make sure that Free/Open Source software and Microsoft products work
> together better, it does not give Novell a license to any of Microsoft's
> patents. It also does not protect Novell from suit by Microsoft.

Would't estoppel prevent this?

This clears nothing up

Posted Nov 30, 2006 8:00 UTC (Thu) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

>> [The deal] does not protect Novell from suit by Microsoft.

> Would't estoppel prevent this?

Perhaps normally, but in this case, no. The deal is specifically
worded /not/ to prevent MS from suing Novell itself, only certain downline
customers and (particularly controversially due to the extremely limited
wording, tho the articles mentions Novell is talking to MS about getting
this expanded) certain upline developers, in ordered to be able to wiggle
thru a loophole in the GPL v2, which would prevent Novell's redistribution
of GPLv2 software if the agreement covered Novell itself, without covering
the entire community, which the agreement certainly doesn't do and MS
would be unlikely to do.

... All conditional on my understanding of the issues, IANAL, etc...

Duncan