Is Microsoft bound by GPLv3?

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The FSF has never before been interested in money damages

The history of the FSF and other supporters/users of the GNU GPL has been compliance, not money damages. Seeking money damages would simply open a can of worms given you then have to figure out the value of the hundreds and sometimes thousands of copyright holder contributions to a given program, and remit the damages accordingly. And at the end of the day, compliance is far more valuable than damages.

Since the FSF will be seeking compliance, the question should be what this compliance will look like? If Microsoft is seen by a court to have been distributing GPLv3 covered software (IE: are then covered by the license unless they wish to be found guilty of infringement), then compliance with the license will include them granting a worldwide non-revocable royalty-free license on the patents they hold that they might otherwise claim were infringed by the GPLv3 covered software.

Note: Their ability to sue based on alleged patent infringements in the Linux Kernel is safe, given this project won't be under the GPLv3 any time soon. It is only the GPLv3 covered components (and not necessarily entire programs, but specific recent patches) that Microsoft distributes that come into play.

This isn't a financial loss for Microsoft given these patents weren't likely of any monetary value to them anyway. Given the quality of software patents granted by the USPTO, there is an extremely high likelihood that any patents they tried to enforce would be invalidated.

By coming into compliance with the GPLv3 they are really only saving them and some of their competitors legal fees. They may loose some respect in the business community for loosing some of their bullying-power, but I don't get the impression they really have much respect to loose at this point anyway.

Posted by: russell@...   Posted on: 08/30/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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