[Novalug] Novell's FAQ to the Open Source Community

[gregory pryzby]

Having not followed EVERY detail of SCO v IBM, I would assume that
people would be aware of patent issues and are making changes IF
needed.

It is stated in Novell's FAQ that if there are known issues, they will
be addressed as appropriate to not contain infringements.

When I said 'community' I was referring to developers. I know
customers are concerned, as that is something I hear daily. 

Interesting domino theory. We will wait to see what happens. As some
have stated, they will move away from Novell because of this. 

On Wed, Nov 08, 2006 at 11:44:26AM -0500, Chris Metzler wrote:
> 
> Whoops, accidentally sent this to Greg directly by mistake.  Here's one
> for the list.  Sorry Greg.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, the Linux community has asserted many, many times that they believe
> the kernel, and other code essential to the platform, is not guilty of
> patent infringement.  And Novell repeats this in the FAQ to which you
> provided a link.  I doubt it's fair to make a statement that "the Linux
> community as a whole" believes there are no patent issues, since that's
> a heck of a lot of people about whom to be making a hard-and-fast
> declaration; but it's definitely the community position that there
> aren't patent issues.  However:
> 
> 1.  Numerous recent patent infringement cases have shown that confidence
> of that sort is misplaced a very large fraction of the time; it is
> extremely difficult to predict what courts will do in patent cases.
> 
> 2.  Many of the principals making such assertions (that Linux is
> unencumbered by patent issues) have also publicly stated that they
> make a concerted effort *not* to be aware of specific possible patent
> infringements, since the U.S. legal system punishes those aware of
> infringement more severely than those who are not.  Linus, for
> instance, has made this statement numerous times; SCO even tried to
> use it against him in the court of public opinion.  In fact, this
> is one of the reasons why statements from the community to the effect
> that we believe there are no patent issues are in fact *necessary*,
> regardless of whether they're actually true.
> 
> 3.  If Microsoft were to pursue patent litigation against Linux
> companies, organizations, or customers, they now can claim the Novell
> agreement as a sort of precedent.  Yes, I'm aware that the agreement
> does not indemnify Novell proper; however, the fact that it protects
> their customers is a strong argument in court that Novell was
> concerned there could be an issue.
> 
> 4.  If we are ever in a situation where, to kill Linux, all Microsoft
> has to do is to kill Novell, we're in big trouble.  Unfortunately,
> these events make that situation more likely to occur, since now
> customers of everyone from Red Hat to Canonical have to be concerned
> about getting out of Microsoft's sights.  As do those companies.
> MS is explicitly stating that they consider bringing software patent
> litigation against Linux users a possibility -- unless they're
> customers of Novell.  We now have a split community:  one which has
> Microsoft's approval and is not under threat of litigation, and one
> which is.  I don't know how that *can't* have a bad effect on the
> community as a whole.
> 
> Microsoft failed, through its agreement to backstop Baystar's financing
> of SCO's litigation against IBM, to have a significant detrimental
> impact on Linux adoption and use.  This is their next trick.
> 
> Off to work,
> 
> -c
> 
> -- 
> Chris Metzler			cmetzler at speakeasy.snip-me.net
> 		(remove "snip-me." to email)
> 
> "As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I
> have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear



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-- 
greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
fingerprint: 8A1A DB90 869F 5DD1 D6E9 EEB6 C156 6B04 849F A86F
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