Microsoft Strikes GPLv3 Software From Linspire Patent Deal
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TechWeb - Microsoft says software that&#39;s licensed under GPLv3 isn&#39;t covered by the patent protection deal it recently signed with desktop Linux distributor Linspire.
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Blog: The Free Software Foundation raises the specter that the iPhone's software will violate its new GPL 3 license.
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Microsoft shot back at the open source community Thursday, saying it would not provide support for software licensed under the GPLv3. The third version of the GPL was officially launched a week ago by the Free Software Foundation.
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Microsoft has rejected the idea that its deal last year with Novell ties it to the new General Public License Version 3 (GPLv3).
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Microsoft releases code for FlexWiki Web collaboration program--the company's third application to go public.
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Blog: Is version 3 of the GNU General Public License asking for too much?
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Linus Torvalds is in a bit of a rage as to the politics of GPLv3, and writes accordingly. Check out this blog and other original content from CNET's Blog Network.
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REDMOND, Wash., and SAN DIEGO, June 14  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Today Microsoft Corp.  and Linux desktop provider Linspire Inc. announced a broad interoperability, technical collaboration that also includes intellectual property assurances.
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Blog: After 18 months of debate--and 16 years following GPL 2's release--the General Public License has finally turned 3.
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Microsoft said Thursday that it had settled an eight-year patent dispute relating to a feature that allows embedded links in its browser that resulted in a $521 million jury verdict against it.
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Patent cross-licence deal cover all but cutting-edge techs
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(InfoWorld) - Linspire Inc. has signed an intellectual-property agreement with Microsoft Corp. that shields the Linux company's customers from patent claims. Microsoft Corp. hasÂ claimed Linux and related open-source software violate 235 of its patents, but the company has not provided information to back its claims, including offering a list of its patents allegedly infringed upon. But that hasn't stopped Linux companies, such as NovellÂ and Xandros, from signingÂ interoperability deals with Microsoft that guarantee protection for their customers from future patent claims. As part of the agreement between Linspire and Microsoft, the companies have agreed to cooperate in several areas. Linspire will work with Novell and Microsoft to develop open-source "translators" that allow Open Office and Microsoft Office users to share documents more easily. The company has also licensed Microsoft's RT audio codec to make its Pidgin IM (instant messaging) client interoperable with Windows Live Messenger and other Microsoft products. As part of the deal, Linspire also pledged to add support for Windows Media 10 in future releases of its Linux OS distribution. The company also agreed to make Windows Live Search the default search engine in Linspire 5.0. Financial terms of the agreement between Linspire and Microsoft were not disclosed.
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(InfoWorld) - A controversial update to the GNU GPL (General Public License) is set to be released Friday by the Free Software Foundation, a representative of the organization said on Tuesday. GPL version 3 is arriving 16 years after version 2 of the license for open-source software. Questions remain, however, about who exactly will adopt it. Among improvements is a copyright technology not found anywhere in the world with the goal of providing uniformity in different jurisdictions, said Brett Smith, licensing compliance engineer for the foundation. "There's a lot of copyright laws that talk about distribution, but they don't mean the same thing," in different places, he said. "Now, GPL talks about propagation and conveying," Smith said. With this new provision, the terms are the same everywhere worldwide, he said. Version 3 also works to ensure that users can modify software installed on personal computers or in household devices. If software is conveyed inside a device, users must be given enough information so they can modify the software in the device, Smith said. An explicit patent provision in GPL 3 means people who contribute to free software cannot sue users for patent infringement, Smith said. This was not clear in the GPL previously. "This will make sure it's very clear and works across the board," he said. Microsoft and Novell recently forged an agreement not to sue each other's customers over patent issues. The foundation in version 3 provides what has been described as "patent-insurance" in response to the Microsoft-Novell arrangement. GPL 3 also spells out requirements for license compatibility. In May, the Foundation expressed intentions to iron out incompatibilities with other open-source licenses such as the Apache license. With this provision, users can copy Apache-licensed code into GPL projects, said analyst Stephen O'Grady of RedMonk. "For a variety of folks, that's a big deal," O'Grady said. Whether to actually migrate to GPL 3 is a developer decision, Smith said. At Digium, which produces the Asterisk open-source telephony platform, no decision has been made yet, said Mark Spencer, chairman and CTO of Digium. "There are some complications around the patent terms that place some additional requirements upon the developers and distributors that we need to fully understand in more detail," Spencer said. Patent provisions add uncertainty about being able to distribute software covered by someone else's patent, he said. But GPL 3 has its merits, he noted. "GPL version 3 does clean up a lot of things about the GPL that were sort of implicit in previous and become much more explicit here," such as how the GPL interacts with other licenses, Spencer said. Sun has expressed the possibility of offering its Solaris OS under the GPL 3. The Linux kernel has been offered under the GPL previously. Novell, Microsoft, and the Linux Foundation deferred comment on Tuesday until the actual release of the license. The FSF has published an essay by FSF President Richard Stallman in which he argues for the benefits of GPL version 3. âThe reason to migrate is because of the existing problems which GPLv3 will fix, such as 'tivoization,' DRM, and threats from software patents. Further advantages of GPLv3 include better internationalization, gentler termination, support for BitTorrent, and compatibility with the Apache license," Stallman said in a statement released by the foundation in May. Tivoization, which refers to Tivo's software, is when computer appliances feature GPL-covered code that cannot be changed because the appliance will shut down. Actual impacts of GPL version 3 could take a year or more to gauge, said Doug Levin, CEO of Black Duck Software, which offers a software compliance management platform. "Right now, it appears there will only be a small number of projects that will adopt the license," but that could change, Levin said.
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All aboard Open sourcerers at Samba have signed up to GPLv3 for all future releases of the Samba software suite, describing the new licence as "better [suited to] the needs of Free Software in the 21st century".â¦
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LINSPIRE INC. the company formerly known as Lindows announced on November 18 that it has licensed Windows Media technology and made it immediately available via a click-and-run online update to the users of the Linux distro.
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Blog: Microsoft says selling Linux coupons doesn't constitute acceptance of the new General Public License, and those coupons won't include support for GPL 3 software.
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South Korea's LG Electronics Inc. has signed a patent cross-licensing agreement with Microsoft Corp. covering a variety of hardware and software products, the companies said Thursday.