Musings on software licensing
,----[ Quote ]
| These news does of course upset Novell, as it is one more move against their
| brilliant scheme of alliance with Microsoft (« ’till thy death, my beloved
| master »). In effect, it nullifies the legal threats from the integration of
| Microsoft’s own intellectual property into OpenOffice.org. If you wonder what
| I’m talking about, just consider the work that is being done jointly by
| Novell and Microsoft on the now famous plugins and converters to OOXML. Some
| of the codes, ideas, and methods, let alone presumed patents will find their
| way back inside Openoffice.org, in two places. First there will be a full
| import and export filter developed by Novell and Microsoft in the Novell
| edition of OpenOffice.org (ain’t that sweet?) that will permeate Microsoft’s
| intellectual property.
|
| Before the release of the (L)GPL v3, only Novell could grant you, lucky you,
| the complete protection on the code (hence creating a lack of balance among
| OpenOffice.org, courtesy of Microsoft). Fortunately for us though, the
| licence upgrade is now protecting OpenOffice.org from the claims of Microsoft
| and anyone legally affected by them. Patent protection is thus the second
| major advantage to this upgrade, as Simon rightly pointed out.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/03/10/musings-on-software-licensing/
Good luck to Microsoft/Novell with their OOXML-enabled, Microsoft fonts-rich,
and patent-encumbered fork.
Can Linspire still distribute OOo 2.4 at all (LGPLv3 which Microsoft disowned
in Linspire's case)? Either way, their outlook looks poor after joining the
Vole.
Linspire's Market Has Changed: Adopt Or Die
http://www.cooltechzone.com/Departments/Columns/Linspire%27s_Market_Has_Changed%3A_Adopt_Or_Die_200803102990/
Related:
Microsoft Strikes GPLv3 Software From Linspire Patent Deal
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft says software that's licensed under a new version of a popular open
| source license isn't covered by the patent protection deal it recently signed
| with desktop Linux distributor Linspire.
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http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001836
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