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This is news indeed. Todd Bishop has the story. Eben Moglen is saying that the SUSE vouchers Microsoft is distributing have no expiration date! I didn't know this. It's huge. This is, according to Moglen's remarks, another defense to any patent infringement claim by Microsoft, and it may well bring that campaign to a screeching halt.
Here's why. Someone, Moglen says, is bound to turn a voucher it got from Microsoft in after GPLv3 goes into effect and GPLv3 code is being distributed, and at that moment Microsoft comes under its terms. And that should mean the end of Microsoft's ability to successfully sue anybody over its alleged patents allegedly in Linux, or to phrase it more exactly, it provides a probable defense to all Linux users and vendors, not just Novell's paying customers, if Microsoft does sue.
Bishop contacted Microsoft, which declined comment. I'm sure this is something they didn't expect when they entered into the devilish "NotaDuck" patent peace agreement with Novell. Oops. I mean with Novell's paying customers. Their intent was to make Novell's paying customers the only anointed blessed Linux users allowed to breathe patent-threat free. But GPLv3 extends the peace to everybody.
Here's how I understand the legal argument. Microsoft is a distributor already under GPLv2, because of distributing the vouchers and some other unstated things FSF's Brett Smith hinted at when he stated the FSF view. So there is already a defense, thanks to GPLv2's implied patent license. But under GPLv3, it's not implied. Here is precisely what happens to Microsoft when someone hands in a voucher after the GPLv3 is in effect:
Here's why. Someone, Moglen says, is bound to turn a voucher it got from Microsoft in after GPLv3 goes into effect and GPLv3 code is being distributed, and at that moment Microsoft comes under its terms. And that should mean the end of Microsoft's ability to successfully sue anybody over its alleged patents allegedly in Linux, or to phrase it more exactly, it provides a probable defense to all Linux users and vendors, not just Novell's paying customers, if Microsoft does sue.
Bishop contacted Microsoft, which declined comment. I'm sure this is something they didn't expect when they entered into the devilish "NotaDuck" patent peace agreement with Novell. Oops. I mean with Novell's paying customers. Their intent was to make Novell's paying customers the only anointed blessed Linux users allowed to breathe patent-threat free. But GPLv3 extends the peace to everybody.
Here's how I understand the legal argument. Microsoft is a distributor already under GPLv2, because of distributing the vouchers and some other unstated things FSF's Brett Smith hinted at when he stated the FSF view. So there is already a defense, thanks to GPLv2's implied patent license. But under GPLv3, it's not implied. Here is precisely what happens to Microsoft when someone hands in a voucher after the GPLv3 is in effect:
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