openSUSE 10.2 RC1 [LWN.net]

openSUSE 10.2 RC1

Posted Nov 27, 2006 9:47 UTC (Mon) by forthy (guest, #1525)
In reply to: openSUSE 10.2 RC1 by drag
Parent article: openSUSE 10.2 RC1

It's even better. GPLv3 sais that whenever you buy a GPL software from someone who owns a patent that's violated in this software, you get a transferrable license of that patent, which is just limited to GPL software (you can't transfer it to proprietary software). So: Buy a SLES/SLED support contract from Microsoft, which is allowed to sell that through the devil's pact. Now you not only have a convenant not to sue, but also a license. Isn't that wonderful?

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openSUSE 10.2 RC1

Posted Nov 27, 2006 10:51 UTC (Mon) by mjthayer (guest, #39183) [Link] (1 responses)

Unfortunately, Novell does not own Microsoft's patents, they just have a
limited licence to use them. Microsoft is not yet distributing GPL 3
software (who knows what the future may hold?)

So it would probably go back to "if you can't grant those rights, you may
not distribute the software". And in that hypothetical case, neither
could Redhat, Canonical and Debian.

(Disclaimer: IANAL. Just in case anyone thought I was).

openSUSE 10.2 RC1

Posted Nov 27, 2006 11:15 UTC (Mon) by niner (guest, #26151) [Link]

Novell does not even have a license to use them, only their customers get one (if you want to call it "license").

But apart from that your asessment seems just right. Of course, IANAL, too.