[GLLUG] Claim: Linux violates 235 MS patents

[Charles Ulrich]

On Monday 14 May 2007 16:19, Junus, Ranti wrote:
> Since MS declines to list those 235 patents, I won't be surprised if
> the bulk of the patents themselves are probably have prior art. 
> Right now, they rely on the uncertainty.
>
> Anyway, interesting observation:
>
> "[Eben] Moglen [head of the Software Freedom Law Center] had another
> card to play. In his view, the fact that Microsoft was selling
> coupons that customers could trade in for Novell Linux subscriptions
> meant that Microsoft was now a Linux distributor. And that, as Moglen
> saw it, meant that Microsoft was itself subject to the terms of the
> GPL. So he'd write a clause saying, in effect, that if Microsoft
> continued to issue Novell Linux coupons after the revised GPL took
> effect, it would be waiving its right to bring patent suits not just
> against Novell customers, but against all Linux users. "I told Brad
> [Smith, Microsoft's General Counuse]," he recalls, "'I think you
> should just walk away from the patent part of the deal now.'
>
> Smith didn't, and Moglen kept his promise. On March 28, the Free
> Software Foundation made public revised GPL provisions, which are
> expected to take effect in July."

Er, maybe I'm not comprehending some aspect of this, but I don't believe 
it's within the FSF's power to revise the GPL and have those revisions 
legally apply to all software that shipped with the previous versions. 
In order for Moglen's card to work, all of these would have to happen:

- Linus would have to update the kernel's GPL to match the FSF's new 
version. He's stated in the past that he has no intention of doing this 
for a number of reasons.

- Novell would have to ship Linus's updated kernel. We all know that 
most Linux distributions lag the latest official kernel by around a 
year for stability and driver testing.

Maybe the revised GPL will help in the future, but it's useless in the 
short term. This gives MS ample time to continue sowing its FUD around. 
And remember, the object of Microsoft's game is not to be right, or 
even to directly harm (read: sue) existing Linux users, but instead 
merely give Linux and indeed the entire open source community a bad 
name in the eyes of the general public. They know they can't beat Linux 
on a technical or TCO level, so they're trying harder than ever to 
stomp out all of the positive press that Linux has accumulated in the 
past few years.

-- 
Charles Ulrich
Ideal Solution, LLC -- http://www.idealso.com