GPLv3 causing cracks in the Microsoft/Novell partnership?

Stephen Withers
Monday, 09 July 2007 13:18

Business IT - Technology

Despite Microsoft's attempt to dissociate itself from GPLv3 software, Novell is embracing the new licence.

One of the motivations behind GPLv3 was to remove the opportunity for discriminatory patent licences such as the agreement between Microsoft and Novell. GPLv3 seeks to automatically extend any patent licence granted to some recipients of the covered software to all recipients.

Novell has announced that it "welcomes and supports GPLv3, and intends to include code licensed under GPLv3 in its distribution" ie, SUSE Linux Enterprise, openSUSE and other software.

"[W]e would like to make clear our commitment to our customers that Novell will continue to distribute SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with its full set of functionality and features, including those components that are licensed under GPLv3."

Microsoft, on the other hand has asserted that "is not a party to the GPLv3 license and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license."

"At this point in time, in order to avoid any doubt or legal debate on this issue, Microsoft has decided that the Novell support certificates that we distribute to customers will not entitle the recipient to receive from Novell, or any other party, any subscription for support and updates relating to any code licensed under GPLv3," the company said in a statement.

Although Microsoft does not itself distribute GPLv3 software, it has provided customers with certificates it purchased from Novell entitling them to a SUSE Linux Enterprise subscription, a step that could be construed as "procuring conveyance" under GPLv3 and therefore extending the patent licence to all users.

So where does that leave Novell's customers?