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Public companies are required to note possible risk factors that investors need to be aware of, and one of the risk factors reported by Novell notes the uncertainty of the effects of the new and upcoming GNU General Public License, according to the company's annual United States Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-K, released last week. The latest version of that license, which is due out this summer, is delivered by the Free Software Foundation and governs code that is used on a royalty-free basis in Linux distributions.
Re: Novell: GPLv3 Could Be Risky Business
Posted by: declanmcgrath 2007-05-30 05:37:35 In reply to: Chris Maxcer
“Regardless of the GPLv3 outcome, it should be noted that Microsoft and Novell are two large companies with plenty of attorneys — if they want to do business together over Linux and Microsoft products, it’s not hard to imagine that they’ll be able to find a way.”
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This statement seems to be wrong way to view what the Free Software Foundation is doing with GPL V3.
Nobody wants to ’stop’ Microsoft and Novell, or any other Open Source distributor, from doing business together. In fact, it would be desirable to see Microsoft produce more Open Source software - as they have with the projects such as the Web Service Software Factory - and collaborate with other players in the Open Source software field.
Rather the point of GPL V3 is to defend the rights of Free Software developers to produce software without the fear of litigation hanging over their head - by extending the patent covenant to all of the Free Software community - not just Novell customers. This is a task which GPL V3 seems poised to tackle admirably well. It is not an aggressive move to attack Open Source/Proprietry software agreements, rather a defensive counter-patent move for Free Software developers.
-------- -------- -------- --------
This statement seems to be wrong way to view what the Free Software Foundation is doing with GPL V3.
Nobody wants to ’stop’ Microsoft and Novell, or any other Open Source distributor, from doing business together. In fact, it would be desirable to see Microsoft produce more Open Source software - as they have with the projects such as the Web Service Software Factory - and collaborate with other players in the Open Source software field.
Rather the point of GPL V3 is to defend the rights of Free Software developers to produce software without the fear of litigation hanging over their head - by extending the patent covenant to all of the Free Software community - not just Novell customers. This is a task which GPL V3 seems poised to tackle admirably well. It is not an aggressive move to attack Open Source/Proprietry software agreements, rather a defensive counter-patent move for Free Software developers.
