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Microsoft Excludes GPLv3 From Linspire Deal
rs232 writes to tell us that Microsoft is excluding any software licensed under the new GPLv3 from their recent patent protection deal with Linspire. "Microsoft has since been treating GPLv3 software as though it were radioactive. 'Microsoft isn't a party to the GPLv3 license and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license,' the company said in a statement released shortly after GPLv3 was published on June 29. In addition to excluding GPLv3 software from the Linspire deal, Microsoft recently said that it wouldn't distribute any GPLv3 software under its SUSE Linux alliance with Novell, even as it maintains in public statements that the antilawsuit provisions in the license have no legal weight. "
The GPL is going to be "radioactive" to a lot of companies. Hell, even the main BSD guys consider it malignant. Developers that want to see their code adopted and used by the mainstream, whether they are in it for profit or not, might want to avoid GPL, especially if their software has runs on specialized or proprietary hardware. GPL creates what in essence is a walled garden. If you GPL your code, you're putting it into that garden. It might be a very beautiful garden, but your code will never get out.*
*Assuming others are contributing to it. If you're the sole copyright holder for your project, you can always do whatever the hell you want.