Text 13705, 94 rader
Skriven 2006-11-04 05:48:02 av /m (1:379/45)
Ärende: Novell-Microsoft: What They Aren't Telling You
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From: /m <mike@barkto.com>


http://technocrat.net/d/2006/11/2/9945

===
Today Novell and Microsoft announced a partnership in which Microsoft has made
some unlikely-seeming promises regarding Linux. What aren't they telling you?
First, you can be sure that Microsoft's not out to help a competitor. This
announcement paves the way for Microsoft to implement significant control over
commercial customer's use of Free Software. And it has significant negative
implications for Open Source in general.
There are two significant announcements. First, that Novell and Microsoft are
entering into a patent cross-license, and second, that Microsoft is promising
not to assert its patents against individual non-commercial developers. The bad
part is that this sets Microsoft up to assert its patents against all
commercial Open Source users. There are also some little bonuses for Microsoft,
like Novell will help Microsoft turn back the Open Document Format and
substitute something Microsoft controls.



When we say "commercial", it's interesting to note that there are really few
non-commercial users: people who only use their computer for a hobby. Buying
something on a web site, for example, is a commercial use. Most individuals use
their computers in some aspect of making their livelihood. There will now be a
Microsoft-approved path for such people to make use of Open Source, an
expensive subscription to Novell SuSe Linux that costs as much or more than
Microsoft Windows and that comes with a patent license.

So, the protection of non-commercial individual contributors means that you can
make Open Source, but if anyone actually uses it for something other than a
hobby or a non-profit organization, there is an implicit threat that Microsoft
can bring a software patent lawsuit against them - unless they are a customer
of Novell.

One of the questions yet to be settled is whether Novell will violate the GPL,
the license of the Linux kernel and other important software, by offering
patent protection that is exclusive to Novell customers. The press release
pretty much stated that. On that topic, the preamble of the GPL says it best:

  We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free
  program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect
  making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made
  it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free
  use or not licensed at all.

Novell has clearly accepted that license. But it appears that they are now out
to make patent protection a business differentiator.


Even if everyone were to be protected regarding software that Novell
distributes, there's the tremendous collection of Free Software that they don't
distribute. A logical next move for Microsoft could be to crack down on
"unlicensed Linux", and "unlicensed Free Software", now that it can tell the
courts that there is a Microsoft-licensed path. Or they can just passively let
that threat stay there as a deterrent to anyone who would use Open Source
without going through the Microsoft-approved Novell path.

With this agreement, Microsoft also secures Novell's assistance in pushing a
pro-Software-patenting agenda in Europe and elsewhere. On a panel that I led at
the AlwaysOn conference this summer, Novell's president made clear their
support for software patenting - a policy that works to the detriment of any
Open Source developer who wants to have users without Novell's blessing. You
can be sure they'll be at Microsoft's elbow now in meeting with legislators and
asking for increases in patent protection.

The timing of this agreement is significant. Microsoft and Novell are said to
have been working on this agreement for some time, and sped up its announcement
to take attention away from Oracle's recent announcement and to further depress
Red Hat in the stock market. The timing of the SCO case is also significant.
Recent testimony in that case revealed that Microsoft offered to "backstop" VC
firm Baystar's investment in SCO, essentially asking Baystar to be a front
through which Microsoft funded SCO's attempt to... charge a royalty to users of
Linux. SCO's case is foundering, so here's Microsoft's next scheme to charge a
royalty to users of Linux, and to make Novell into the next SCO. Groklaw, a
widely-respected journal of technology law, probably said it best with their
headline on this story: Novell Sells Out.

This entire agreement hinges around software patenting - monopolies on ideas
that are burying the software industry in litigation - rather than innovation.
If we've learned one thing from the rapid rise of Open Source, it's that
intellectual property protection - the thing that Open Source dispenses with -
actually impedes innovation. And the Novell-Microsoft agreement stands as an
additional impediment.
===

Here's a link to Groklaw: http://www.groklaw.net/


  /m

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