BOSTON (Reuters) - The Free Software Foundation is reviewing Novell
Inc.'s right to sell new versions of Linux operating system software
after the open-source community criticized Novell for teaming up with
Microsoft Corp.
"The community of people wants to do anything
they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it. They have
every reason to be deeply concerned that this is the beginning of a
significant patent aggression by Microsoft," Eben Moglen, the
Foundation's general counsel, said on Friday.
The foundation controls intellectual property rights to key parts of the open-source Linux operating system. |
The open source community lashed back, but was it right?
When Microsoft and Novell announced their Linux agreement last November, it knocked the open source
community for a loop, and some hit back hard. "The Microsoft message
here is clear. 'I can pick and choose among the players and bribe
whomever I want,'" says Francois Banchilhon, CEO of Mandriva, a Linux marketer.
That's harsh, but not untypical of the online postings that have
proliferated since the deal was disclosed. And while a big customer win
and a new Linux support organization may serve to blunt some of that
criticism, they haven't answered all the questions the deal has raised.
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Microsoft is labouring under a delusion. While the rest of the
world thinks of it as a software company, it prefers to consider itself
a government department. How else to see its latest scheme whereby, if
you ignore its questions, it will report you to its private paid-for
policemen at the Business Software Alliance?
The logic behind the scheme goes thus. Microsoft's software
is on the vast majority of the world's computers, so any computer you
pick at random is likely to have it on. If you are a company of 200
souls, then you must be using 200 licences. If you have fewer, then
you're ripping Microsoft off. If you don't admit to it, then that's
even worse and you deserve to be taken to court.
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After Novell tied-up with Microsoft, it has lost the right to sell new
versions of Linux operating systems, a member of the Free Software
Foundation has said.
It may be remembered that Novell had tied
up with Microsoft, a proponent of paid software, to sell open software
products. It hailed the decision as far reaching and beneficial to the
industry.
The free software foundation controls the intellectual property of the open-source Linux operating system.
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Boston - For three and a half years, a blogger named Pamela Jones has led a relentless online crusade against software maker SCO Group, posting thousands of articles bashing the company for suing IBM over the Linux operating system.
Now
the Lindon, Utah, software company is fighting back by seeking to take
a deposition from Jones. Just one problem: They can't find her.
SCO
tried last week to serve a subpoena to Jones at a house in Darien,
Conn., where they believe she's been living, but the attempt was
unsuccessful, according to a person close to the matter, who spoke on
condition of anonymity. |
Commentary: Blame Jim Finkle at Reuters, I suppose. His story
is the one that started this large dung-ball of misinformation rolling
around the Internet. You know the one, about Novell losing the right to
distribute Linux.
The Reuters story quotes Eben Moglen, general counsel for the Free
Software Foundation, as saying, "The community of people wants to do
anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it.
They have every reason to be deeply concerned that this is the
beginning of a significant patent aggression by Microsoft."
Finkle goes on to say, "Novell angered members of the
open-source community that develops Linux and other free software
programs in November when it entered a wide-ranging business deal with
Microsoft." |
The Free Software Foundation is
reviewing Novell's right to sell new versions of
Linux operating system software after the open-source community criticized Novell for teaming up with Microsoft.
BOSTON - The Free Software Foundation is
reviewing Novell Inc.'s right to sell new versions of
Linux operating system software after the open-source community
criticized Novell for teaming up with Microsoft Corp.
"The community of people wants to do anything they can to
interfere with this deal and all deals like it. They have every
reason to be deeply concerned that this is the beginning of a
significant patent aggression by Microsoft," Eben Moglen, the
Foundation's general counsel, said Friday. |
In an interview today with Linux-Watch, SCO CEO Darl McBride said that his company's primary attorneys, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, are indeed trying to serve a subpoena for a deposition on Pamela Jones, the editor of, Groklaw, the legal IT news site.
McBride
said that the idea for serving Jones came from the law-firm. "It's my
understanding that she has some material of importance to our slander
of title case with Novell. I don't know the exact details."
This case sprang from Novell's contention that it, and not SCO, owns Unix's IP
(intellectual property) rights. Novell claims that neither the APA
(asset purchase agreement) of Sept. 19, 1995, which transferred Unix
and UnixWare to Santa Cruz Operations, nor Amendment 2 to the APA gave
SCO any copyrights to Unix. If Novell wins this point in Federal Court,
then SCO's case against IBM for placing Unix IP code into Linux falls apart like a house of cards with the bottom card knocked out. |
SYDNEY, Australia--Novell will continue its march against Microsoft
and the Vista operating system despite a recent alliance with the
software giant.
"We're excited by the muted reaction to Vista," Ron Hovsepian, Novell's
chief executive, told the media at a meeting here Thursday. "We're going to attack (Microsoft) vigorously and go after their footprint as much as we can."
Microsoft's Vista was five years in the making, so the code behind it
is very complex, Hovsepian said, whereas open source is more nimble and
flexible. "And we have got to take advantage of that."
Despite Novell's commitment to attack the market on its own terms, Hovsepian acknowledges that there are benefits to its alliance with the software giant. The two companies signed the pact in November and fleshed out details of it this week.
The reality is you can't escape the "Microsoft juggernaut" in the
marketplace, so you have to work with them to get your foot in the
door, Hovsepian said. When you talk to customers, he said, most will
say "I hate Microsoft." Yet those same customers say 60 percent of
their servers run on Windows--not Linux, which Novell backs. |
Steve Ballmer has
reissued Microsoft's patent threat against Linux, warning open-source
vendors that they must respect his company's intellectual property.
In a no-nonsense presentation to New York financial analysts last
week, Microsoft's chief executive said the company's partnership with
Novell, which it signed in November 2006, "demonstrated clearly the
value of intellectual property, even in the open-source world."
The cross-selling partnership means that Microsoft will recommend
Suse Linux for customers who want a mixed Microsoft/open-source
environment. It also involves a "patent co-operation agreement", under
which Microsoft and Novell agreed not to sue each other's customers for
patent infringement.
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