Tuesday, 27 March 2007

Novell Defends Microsoft Deal

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) will unveil the third draft of the GNU General Public License Version 3 on March 28.

"We never planned to let so much time pass between public releases of the license, but we felt it was important to fully discuss a few specific issues, including the recent patent deal between Novell and Microsoft, before proceeding with the process," Licensing Compliance Engineer Brett Smith, of the Free Software Foundation, said.

Ron Hovsepian, Novell's CEO claimed no regrets about the Microsoft-Novell deal. . Read more here.

"We need to make sure such deals don't make a mockery of the goals of free software," Peter Brown, executive director of the Free Software Foundation, said.

The Free Software Foundation will aim to weaken the Microsoft-Novell patent deal by adding a language that will complete that goal into the new license contract that will wrap rights to much of the code in Linux, Brown said.

"They found a way to effectively proprietise free software by offering patent promises to Novell," Brown said. "Whenever a new method comes along to effectively turn free software into proprietary software, we will adjust the license."