[Novalug] Novell agreement question

gregory pryzby greg@pryzby.org
Wed Jan 24 16:28:09 EST 2007


I am not a lawyer and have not read the documents. However, I will
share what I was told.

On Wed, Jan 24, 2007 at 11:00:34AM -0500, Ken Kauffman wrote:
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> If Novell develops interoperability components for MS products (i.e. OO
> Open XML), am I to assume that will still be proprietary and only
> covered with license purchase through Novell?  Meaning -- all other

No. All of Novell's contributions to OO are Open Source and given back
to the OO team. if and when they are accepted is a different issue. 

> Linux distributions and the O.S. movement are left in the dark.  MS
> seems to be patenting some of the 'standards' they are implementing and
> preventing reverse engineering and interoperability, creating a legal
> quagmire for other distributions and O.S. development.

Not the case specifically with OO.

I do not know what is going on with virtualization as the is part of
the next step. I do know that what Novell does around the Linux
Distribution (SLE) is open source. If it is part of ZENworks it might
be closed. If it is in the distribution, it will be open. That is how
things have worked to date and what I am told will be the future.

> If that's NOT the case and everyone gets to share the wealth, what
> happens WHEN the agreement between the companies dissolves and nobody
> has the agreed upon protection?

It is open source and under the appropriate license.

> Inquiring minds want to know.

No idea.  I would assume since it was written and licensed under Open
Source, a company can not change their mind and sue on something they
released as open source.

But I am not a lawyer. However that is how I understand open source
licenses. They can rev it and have a new version with a new license
(effectively forking the code)

-- 
greg pryzby                              greg at pryzby dot org
fingerprint: 8A1A DB90 869F 5DD1 D6E9 EEB6 C156 6B04 849F A86F
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