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Microsoft's SUSE Coupons Have No Expiry Date

Posted by Zonk on from the oh-is-it-ever-a-trap dept.

mw13068 writes "In a recent article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer FSF General Council Eben Moglen points out that the Microsoft SUSE coupons have no expiration date. The result? 'Microsoft can be sure that some coupons will be turned into Novell in return for software after the effective date of GPL 3. Once that has happened, patent defenses will, under the license, have moved out into the broad community and be available to anybody who Microsoft should ever sue for infringement.' Groklaw is also covering the story in it's inimitable way."

6 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. Don't worry Zonk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google says 11,000 people also misspelt Expirey.

  2. Let me tell you a story... by grub · · Score: 5, Funny


    When I was a wee lad of 5 or 6, my grandpa would sit me on his lap and tell me about life and learning. He'd say things like "Boy, always treat people as you'd like them to treat you" or "A penny saved is a penny earned".
    My favourite one was "Boy, never, ever misspell the word "expiry" or you'll look like a fucking retard."

    I sure miss Grandpa.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
  3. Re:Max character limit by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they have a 49 char max, but I could be wro

  4. Re:Great, by QuantumG · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You do know that the new versions of GNU and many other projects will be GPLv3 only right?

    If Novell chooses to distribute only old forks, good luck to them, they're dead in the water already.

    --
    How we know is more important than what we know.
  5. Good news for Digg by mrsam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From TFA:

    [ A spokesman for a Microsoft-funded trade group ] disputed the assertion that Microsoft's distribution of Suse Linux service and support coupons makes it a Linux distributor.

    "They're not distributing Linux," Wilder said. "They're providing somebody access to a service but they're not providing copies of Linux on a disk, and they're not providing somebody access to Linux for the purpose of download, and so they're not engaged in any distribution."





    Great news! Let's start all posting the AACS key to Digg, again. After all, you won't be distributing AACS yourself, and you are not going to provide access to download anything.


  6. It's very simple for Microsoft by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's very simple for Microsoft to deal with this. Let's say Linux goes GPLv3, and SuSE is on 10.7 by then, which is the last GPLv2 version. SuSE 10.8 is GPLv3.

    You get one of the coupons. You wait a couple years, and by then the current SuSE is 11.2.

    You turn in your coupon.

    And guess what? Microsoft or Novell or whoever handles fulfilling the coupons sends you a bright new shiny copy of SuSE 10.7.