[Linux4christians] OT: Is Microsoft going after Linux?

[Eddy Martin]

Legatus wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 11:38, Raoul Snyman
> <raoul.snyman at saturnlaboratories.co.za> wrote:
>> On Tuesday 03 March 2009 07:20:37 Fred A. Miller wrote:
>>> Is Microsoft going after Linux?
>> No they are not.
>>
>>> Richard Koman: Last week Microsoft filed suit against TomTom over
>>> patents that the open source community has long feared.
>> Microsoft sued TomTom over the fact that the TomTom devices can read FAT
>> devices, and didn't get a license from Microsoft for that. Microsoft is not
>> suing TomTom for using Linux, but for using their technology without a
>> license.
> 
> A capability they have because of a driver that is a part of the linux
> kernel. I would say they are going for a win against TomTom to use in
> a case against others who use the Linux Kernel as a part of their
> product.
I'll quote Jeremy Allison in his reply here:
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=19798349&postID=5869556777195588700
about what all this will mean.

"What people are missing about this is the either/or choice that 
Microsoft is giving Tom Tom.

It isn't a case of cross-license and everything is ok. If Tom Tom or any 
other company cross licenses patents then by section 7 of GPLv2 (for the 
Linux kernel) they lose the rights to redistribute the kernel *at all*.

Microsoft has been going around and doing these patent cross licensing 
deals with companies under NDA's so they never come to light for *years*.

That was the whole point of the Novell deal - Microsoft lawyers finally 
thought they'd found a way to *publicly* do these cross licensing deals 
and get around the GPLv2, but the GPLv3 put paid to that.

Tom Tom are the first company to publicly refuse to engage in this ugly 
little protection racket, and so they got sued. Had Tom Tom silently 
agreed to violate the GPL, as so many others have, then we'd only hear 
about a vague "patent cross licensing deal" just like the ones Microsoft 
announces with other companies.

Make no mistake, this is intended to force Tom Tom to violate the GPL, 
or change to Microsoft embedded software."