Eben Moglen: GPLv3 not about MS and Novell (video)
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| Professor Moglen explains briefly about GPLv3's work on globalization
| of the software license, preventing harm to others by members of
| the community, and the most contentious in earlier drafts, DRM.
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http://community.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/05/17/1616214&from=rss
Parsing the details of the Microsoft-Novell pact
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| And while it's suspicious that Novell dropped these filings late Friday
| before a long weekend, I'll give the company a pass. The filings were
| ridiculously late due to stock options backdating so why make theS
| ecurities and Exchange Commission wait? Just get the filings over
| with already--it's not like we didn't know they were coming.
|
| [...]
|
| The takeaways from that passage:
|
| * Novell may not get the payola it's getting accustomed to
| from Microsoft;
| * It's clear that Microsoft's patent statements are really about
| calling a GPLv3 truce;
| * Novell has to be worried since I?d argue that the Microsoft
| pact is one of the big reasons SUSE Linux is getting traction in
| the enterprise.
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Indeed. The EFF joining and the fight against USPTO, not to mention
denouncing of Microsoft's claims, are just defensive moves. Novell enjoys
Microsoft's anti-Linux FUD, which makes Novell seem like a safe haven (at
the expense of all else).
,----[ Quote ]
| [...]
|
| At the end of the document, Microsoft outlines its patents pledge to
| hobbyist developers and openSUSE.org developers.
|
| The message seems to be: Cut deals with Microsoft on patents and
| you'll be exonerated.
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http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=5169
More comments in Groklaw and LWN:
http://lwn.net/Articles/235826/
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070525211117353
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