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Microsoft Promises Not To Sue Moonlight 2.0 Users
darthcamaro writes "Moonlight 2.0, Novell's open source implementation of the Microsoft media framework, is now available and comes with a new patent promise from Microsoft. Any Linux user can use it now without worrying about being sued: '"A really important change in how the community and individuals will see and use Moonlight is a change and extension to the patent covenant that Microsoft provides to Novell and its end users," Brian Goldfarb, director of Web and user experience platforms at Microsoft, told InternetNews.com. "We're now increasing the reach of the agreement — Microsoft's commitment not to sue Novell or Novell's customers now extends to redistributors."'"
Estoppel?
#!/bin/csh cat $0
"Moonlight 2.0, that's Novell's open source implementation of the Microsoft media framework in now available and with comes a new patent promise from Microsoft."
Just how effective is it to hear "use our stuff - we won't sue!" as the marketing message?
Guess it's time to try a little test...
I promise not to sue anyone who buys my iphone apps.
There. We'll see how that works out for me.
*ducks under the desk for cover from the coming flames*
I'm not the slightest bit interested. The only time I've ever used Silverlight is when I've watched SkyTV online in the UK as a media thingy for your browser. It doesn't interest me elsewhere (and I doubt whether that alone will sustain it long-term), as any kind of 'new' development platform (ActiveX 2.0?) and I'm certainly not interested in using it on non-Windows platforms because said media stuff doesn't work regardless. Just stop trying to legitimise Silverlight on other platforms because you aren't gaining any traction and stop using it to legitimise all of your patent bullshit. Anyone who works under that kind if duress, from a competitor no less, is stir-fry crazy.
The summary specifically says Linux and the article linked to doesn't expand that statement. What about running it on *BSD, Haiku, Minix, RTEMS, etc.? Reading a quote in the article carefully says "redistributors". What is a redistributor? A Novell reseller?
As a result of today's expansion of that deal, Moonlight users will enjoy protection under the patent covenant regardless of whether they're using Novell's (NASDAQ: NOVL) Linux distro or another distributor's.
"A really important change in how the community and individuals will see and use Moonlight is a change and extension to the patent covenant that Microsoft provides to Novell and its end users," Brian Goldfarb, director of Web and user experience platforms at Microsoft, told InternetNews.com. "We're now increasing the reach of the agreement -- Microsoft's commitment not to sue Novell or Novell customers now extends to redistributors."
The first sentence is the author's so reflects their interpretation. The second is a Microsoft person who uses the phrase "not to sue Novell or Novell customers now extends to redistributors". So who does that actually cover?
If somebody starts screaming "NO! I'M NOT GOING TO KILL YOU" what should you do? I don't know about you, but I'm running as fast as hell away from that person.
When Steve Balmer says "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." we are not supposed to believe this is an actual threat, but when he says "we won't sue you", we're supposed to believe he's telling the literal truth?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Really, what's to prevent them from waiting until the tech is firmly embraced, then changing the deal?
Lando Calrissian?
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
That's nice -- why don't Microsoft just release a version of Silverlight for Linux, themselves? Why depend upon some other group? Sure doesn't make me confident in Silverlight/Moonlight's future prospects for maintenance on Linux, that's for sure.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
What happens to developers? Just in case, we fork out Novell's moonlight tree because they got bought by someone (*cough* mysql, *cough*), will the conventant apply to us? Or does it only apply to code written by Novell & redistributed by others? Does this indirectly kill the freedom to modify & redistribute? like that firefox logo thing?
Alright, I admit it, I do have an axe to grind against silverlight (and flash too, I guess). But this covenant just goes on to establish precedent in terms of patent coverage ... (yes, note my domain, I've been through this before).
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur
Then why make a promise in the first place, just make it free. There's a reason behind this "promise."
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Hmmm....
As was (once again) pointed out on Groklaw recently, this sort of language is a restriction that is incompatible with the GPL. (GPLv2 section 6, much more explicit about patents in GPLv3 section 11.)
Far safer to avoid Microsoft patented technology than to rely on such a promise.
No the best way to do it is to not do every fucking thing over port 80. Try FTP or SFTP, the browser is not the only damn thing a computer can be used for and there are more ports than just 80.
Damn kids these days.