Re: GPLv3 comedy unfolding -- LinuxElectrons: "Microsoft Issues Statement Concerning the GPLv3 and Novell Agreement"

[Alexander Terekhov]

http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/linux/10565/microsoft-issues-statement-concerning-gplv3-novell-agreement

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Microsoft Issues Statement Concerning the GPLv3 and Novell Agreement

Published: Thursday, July 05 2007 @ 7:04 PM CDT
Contributed by: Tommy 

Today, Microsoft issued the following statement concerning the GPLv3 and
its agreement with Novell:

<quote>

Microsoft is not a party to the GPLv3 license and none of its actions
are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of
GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license.

While there have been some claims that Microsoft’s distribution of
certificates for Novell support services, under our interoperability
collaboration with Novell, constitutes acceptance of the GPLv3 license,
we do not believe that such claims have a valid legal basis under
contract, intellectual property, or any other law. In fact, we do not
believe that Microsoft needs a license under GPL to carry out any aspect
of its collaboration with Novell, including its distribution of support
certificates, even if Novell chooses to distribute GPLv3 code in the
future. Furthermore, Microsoft does not grant any implied or express
patent rights under or as a result of GPLv3, and GPLv3 licensors have no
authority to represent or bind Microsoft in any way.

At this point in time, in order to avoid any doubt or legal debate on
this issue, Microsoft has decided that the Novell support certificates
that we distribute to customers will not entitle the recipient to
receive from Novell, or any other party, any subscription for support
and updates relating to any code licensed under GPLv3. We will closely
study the situation and decide whether to expand the scope of the
certificates in the future.

As always, Microsoft remains committed to working with the open source
software community to help improve interoperability for customers
working in mixed source environments and deliver IP assurance. Our
partnerships with Novell and other Linux platform and desktop providers
remain strong and the IP bridge we built with them, embodied in our
collaboration agreements, remains intact. In particular, our technical
and business collaboration with Novell continues to move full steam
ahead, including our joint development work on virtualization,
standards-based systems management, identity interoperability and
document format translators. In addition, the patent covenants offered
by Microsoft and Novell to each other’s customers are unchanged, and
will continue to apply in the same way they did previously.

</quote>
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The GPL girl jumps in and claims that "In other words, not to put too
fine a point on it, GPLv3 worked. ... You know what I love about the
GPL? Regular lawyers can't understand it."

LOL.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070705205728953
(MS: Dancing as fast as it can to try to get away from GPLv3)

regards,
alexander.

--
"Mathematics is primarily a language for ensuring reliable results 
in human social activity. "

         -- Columbia Professor Eben Anarcho-Dot Communist Moglen