It's been a week since version 3 of the GPL
was released, and the ripple effect is starting to make some pretty
big waves: Microsoft -- which has been essentially selling Novell's
SUSE Linux since last year -- released a terse statement today
claiming that neither it nor its customers are parties to any terms
of the revised license. Furthermore, "to avoid any doubt or legal
debate on this issue," Microsoft will decline to support any GPL v3
code that might be distributed with SUSE. Microsoft does have a
point: since Linux remains under GPL v2 (and probably will for the
foreseeable future), there's very little binding them to the terms
of GPL v3 -- specifically, the patent protection terms that would
essentially undo the major element of the whole MS / Novell
agreement. How the inclusion of GPL v3 code with SUSE affects the
overall license is another matter entirely -- one that will result
in a lot of legal chest-pounding until the GPL finally gets tested
in an American court.
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