11.24.06
Posted in Deals, Microsoft, Novell at 9:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Don Parris of LXer.com recently did an interview with itbusinessedge.com. Therein he suggests reversing parts of the deal that are concerned with patents protection. The interview closes with the following statement:
Both parties need to re-think this… What bothers me most about the agreement is that Novell seems somehow caught off guard by Ballmer’s words. Did they not know Microsoft’s position going into the deal? Novell should have reasonably known that Microsoft would use this deal to try to scare people into cutting deals with them — and maybe that’s the real benefit for Novell. If Microsoft believes [the Linux] community’s code infringes [its] patents, why don’t they send letters asking the respective coders to cease and desist? That way, the infringement can stop on amicable terms. Otherwise, Microsoft — especially Ballmer — needs to shut up.
Interoperability should have been the one and only aspect from which to gain. Microsoft’s advantage clearly came from subtle clauses, which opened to door to convenience in argumentation, e.g. pressuring Red Hat, the European Commission, and spreading unfounded FUD.
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Posted in GPL, Law, Microsoft, Novell, Patent Covenant, Patents at 4:11 pm by Shane Coyle
Here is an article on lamlaw.com regarding Microsoft’s potential Antitrust violations, and whether Novell is violating the GPL or not:
When Microsoft agreed with Novell to cross their promises not to sue customers, Microsoft (and Novell) have likely violated the law.
They can both stand up and make it sound like it is just another cross marketing agreement. But, that might not be the case.
As for Novell, the charge is rather simple. The agreement violates GPL 2. It certainly does so in spirit if not the letter. But, I think a case can easily be made that it also violates the letter.
The article goes on to outline manners in which Microsoft may have intentionally used this deal to sabotage the GPL, also reminding us of Microsoft’s direct and indirect roles in the SCO lawsuit, which had the same intent. Antitrust concerns are also outlined as possible avenues of research.
And, in a response to Novell’s assertions regarding their stance on Patents and Open Source:
It is nice to see Novell do as much as they do in regard to patents. However, working with patents does not permit nor excuse violations of the GPL. And in that regard, it is the perception of the violation that is important. It would not matter if a court of law approved the patent deal or agreed it did not violate the GPL if contributors see it another way.
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Posted in Antitrust, Deals, Europe, Formats, Interoperability, Microsoft, RAND at 3:32 pm by Shane Coyle
CNNMoney reports that Microsoft has met the EC deadline, and has submitted revised documentation including the technical information required to interoperate with Windows. It will take months for the committee to review the documents to determine if Microsoft is now in compliance:
At the same time, a Monitoring Trustee appointed by the Commission will test the documentation.
If the Commission decides that the documentation is acceptable, it will face the question of whether the price Microsoft plans to charge for the protocols is justified.
Microsoft could face further fines if the Commission finds that the price was based on Microsoft’s exercise of monopoly power rather than on the originality of its product.
The price for the protocols? Wanna bet that price is in line with what Novell just agreed to pay, with similar restrictive license terms?* By agreeing to this deal, Novell is now saying that the Interoperability Protocols are indeed original, and deserving of licensing and paying royalties.
Novell is helping Microsoft exclude Free Software projects from interoperating with Windows without paying royalties, and then you won’t be able to redistribute the code – so I guess no GPL if you want to talk to Windows, or I suppose you could use Novell’s distro – it has patent indemnification straight from Microsoft.
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* UPDATE:
I was digging some more, reviewing some old Groklaw articles from around the time of the Antitrust ruling, and stumbled upon an article from January 2005 that linked to Microsoft’s proposed terms for complying with the ruling. Read through the terms of the various license flavors (pdf links), and also review the program entry requirements including:
SECTION C: REQUIRED PAYMENTS
For each separate Work Group Server Protocol Program License Agreement for Development and Product Distribution identified in the table above as requiring a payment, a prepaid royalty payment of €50,000 is required. These prepaid royalties are nonrefundable unless your participation in the Work Group Server Protocol Program is terminated because you do not complete other Program Entry Requirements.
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Posted in Deals, GPL, Novell at 2:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The Novell/Microsoft deal may be the last straw in a sequence of mistakes which, over the years, have led to layoffs. The Inquirer takes a look at what it considers to be Novell’s top 5 mistakes. Here is the gist.
5. Not merging with Lotus.
4. NetWare Lite.
3. Ever-changing strategies.
2. Buying Digital Research.
1. Buying WordPerfect.
In another short writeup, I believe we see the term “Novellization” being coined.
Forget about Tivoization. How about adding a clause to the next version of the GPL that counters Novellization?
It is apparent that Novell is being excluded by the Free Software community inasmuch as it has aliented itself on November 2nd.
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Posted in Action, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu at 1:36 pm by Shane Coyle
Calls are coming from all over the community for users and developers to turn their backs on Novell. The latest entreaty is from Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth, the folks behind the Ubuntu flavors of Debian.
If you have an interest in being part of a vibrant community that cares about keeping free software widely available and protecting the rights of people to get it free of charge, free to modify, free of murky encumbrances and “undisclosed balance sheet liabilities”, then please do join us.
Now is the time to show Novell and their shareholders the negative impact of this self-serving deal, OpenSUSE users and developers must walk out and Fork Novell. Projects should follow the lead of projects such as LiVES, who note on their download page:
Suse
LiVES no longer supports Suse, since Novell signed a deal with a certain well known company. If you are using Suse, please consider moving to another distribution.
Novell must not be supported, boycott Novell.
Update: Apparently Mr. Shuttleworth also posted his invitation to SUSE developers on the OpenSUSE mailing list, which in my opinion is somewhat tactless and certainly it is not befitting of Ubuntu’s “leader”.
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Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Intellectual Monopoly, Steve Ballmer at 11:23 am by Shane Coyle
Linuxworld has an article regarding Microsoft’s recent public statements regarding possible IP infringement in Linux and FOSS, and there is a quote that is not as notable so much for its content as its source:
Some observers say the possibility of Ballmer asserting rights to patents that Linux may have potentially infringed upon is slim.
“At this point I think it is more of an intimidation tactic,” says Laura DiDio, an analyst with the Yankee Group. “To tell you the truth, if I am Joe IT, I don’t know if this is much of a deterrent to me. Quite frankly, you have to prove [patent infringement].”
I agree, but more and more, I don’t think this is as much about an attack on Linux as I did initially. The FUD that Mr. Ballmer spewed was genuinely not part of the deal, and I believe this is why Novell had the reaction they did.
This deal is designed to undermine the EC Antitrust Ruling, allowing Microsoft to now argue that Novell (formerly a plaintiff against MS in antitrust litigation) sees the value and necessity in paying license fees and royalties to interoperate with Windows.
Microsoft was worried that the EC ruling establishes a precedent of compulsory licensing, which Microsoft contends would stifle innovation if they were required to do so. As analyst Matt Rosoff put it:
Analyst Rosoff maintained that Microsoft is concerned about the long-term precedent of having a governmental body force it to do something to its core product. From Microsoft’s point of view, he explained, it “owns Windows and it doesn’t make sense that a government body should dictate design points in it.”
Microsoft also has intellectual property concerns about the EC decision, he added. “It doesn’t want what it views as its intellectual property to go into a general public-type license, a GPL-type license, where it can be freely shared,” he said.
Perhaps Novell also is wary of such a precedent, they do have a significant “IP Portfolio” of their own, as they have been noting themselves.
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Posted in Action, Deception, Fork, Intellectual Monopoly, Novell at 8:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Nicholas Petreley of Linux Journal warms about the dangers of accepting patches from Novell.
It is with regret that I urge all FOSS developers to treat anything Novell has contributed to the community as suspect, scrutinize any Novell contributions and purge them as deemed appropriate.
As argued before, OpenOffice, Mono, and even Samba, whose developers strongly protested against this deal, are becoming a legal timebomb. Isolation from Novell is separation from Microsoft’s hands.
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Posted in Antitrust, Europe, Interoperability, Microsoft, Samba at 1:55 am by Shane Coyle
We all may be looking in the wrong direction here, what if this deal with Novell is Microsoft’s way of legitimizing the need for licensing of their “IP” to achieve interoperability and undermine the EC ruling?
As you may know, Microsoft is appealing the EC ruling, and it will take months for it to play out. In the ruling, Microsoft was ordered to provide necessary documentation to allow rivals to access MS protocols. Essentially, Microsoft has not complied with the judgement and provided the necessary technical documentation to allow for interoperating with their servers and desktops. In fact, Microsoft has attempted to submit license terms, which included the charging of royalties, to the court in response to this judgement, terms which were rejected.
Perhaps the hope is that the Novell interoperability deal says to the EC that MS’ claims that their Interoperability Licensing terms for use of their Intellectual Property are indeed reasonable and non-discriminatory, and enough to at least reduce the severity of the ruling.
As noted in this article, Microsoft has negotiated directly with companies in the past to undermine the EC rulings, including Novell.
He noted that Microsoft has undercut support for the EC’s decision by cutting deals with individual vendors. “Microsoft reached a private agreement with Sun [Microsystems], so Sun dropped out of the case,” he said. “And it reached a private agreement with Novell, so Novell dropped out of the case.”
[editor note: the linked/quoted article is from Apr 7, 2005 - the "private agreement" referred to in the quote is not the recent deal of November 2006]
Ask yourself, why would Novell approach MS over interoperability when the EC ruling is forcing them to hand over the info? Why would Novell be publicizing benefits of the deal in areas of Europe where software patents aren’t even valid? Microsoft is paying Novell off to help them with the EC Antitrust case.
Novell now legitimizes Microsofts position that developers, even if they write their own code (samba), still should license and pay royalties to Microsoft for their “IP” (specs, I suppose) to be able to interoperate with Windows. Microsoft does not want to publish that information so that just anyone can interoperate with Windows without paying royalties, Novell helps their argument now.
If true, MS will get off very cheap if they get the case reversed or reduced (compared to what they payed Novell, plus they get royalties!). Brilliant, really.
Just the other day, Microsoft indicated that they would prefer to license rather than litigate, perhaps with Novell’s help once again they will be able to license rather than comply with the EC ruling.
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