Novell + Sun. Two ships passing in the night Wowza... so much hub-bub yesterday about Sun open-sourcing Java. It almost drowned out this news:

• Samba project asks Novell to back out of Microsoft agreement
  They say:
  

Using patents as competitive tools in the free software world is not acceptable. Novell, as a participant in numerous debates, discussions and conferences on the topic knew this to be the case. We call upon Novell to work with the Software Freedom Law Center to undo the patent agreement and acknowledge its obligations as a beneficiary of the Free Software community.

And somehow this gets connected to the Sun Java announcement. Samba isn't the only one bugged by the Microsoft/ Novell arrangement. While Sun already had plans to open source Java, they had not decided on a license. It turns out that Sun decision to use the GPL is directly related to the Novell/ Microsoft agreement.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz writes:

... one of the strongest motivations to select the GPL was the announcement made last week by Novell and Microsoft, suggesting that free and open source software wasn't safe unless a royalty was being paid. As an executive from one of those companies said, "free has to have a price."

That's nonsense.

Free software can be free of royalties, and free of impediments to broadscale, global adoption and deployment. Witness what we've done with Solaris, and now, what we've done with Java. Developers are free to pick up the code, and create derivatives. Without royalty or obligation.

Those that say open source software can't be safe for customers - or that commercially indemnified software can't foster community - are merely advancing their own agenda. Without any basis in fact.

They're also fighting a rising tide.

Related:

• Ubuntu to include Java, now that it's GPL'd
• Novell stock down after initial bump since Microsoft announcement (via CRN)
  
• David Berlind correctly predicted Java going GPL, before it happened
• Novell blog addresses open source community's negative reaction to Microsoft/ Novell agreement
• Sun's Tim Bray on the internal discourse and resistance and encouragement, of the open sourcing of Java
  

Labels: copyright, gpl, law, legal, license, microsoft, novell, patents, software, strategy, sun, technology

  ¶ 8:59 AM