Microsoft tries to sidestep GPL 3
Microsoft on Thursday began taking evasive action to avoid being pinned down by provisions in the new version 3 of the General Public License (GPL).
The company issued a statement declaring itself not a party to GPL 3. And regarding coupons it sells that entitle customers to
"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 GPL 3," the company said, though it left the door open to a revision of this policy later.
The GPL 3, issued last week, is a significant update of the most widely used license in the open-source programming realm.
Microsoft's move is a response to a provision in the GPL 3 that, according to the Free Software Foundation, means that patent protections Microsoft extends to Novell's Suse Linux customers are automatically extended to any users of GPL 3 software in that package.
Microsoft disputed this position.
"While there have been some claims that Microsoft's distribution of certificates for Novell support services, under our interoperability collaboration with Novell, constitutes acceptance of the GPL 3 license, we do not believe that such claims have a valid legal basis under contract, intellectual property, or any other law," Microsoft said.
Stephen Shankland writes about a wide range of technology and products, but has a particular focus on browsers and digital photography. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered Google, Yahoo, servers, supercomputing, Linux and open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen, or follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/stshank. 
