Proprietary software vendor unilaterally slashes terms for its Suse Linux
coupons.
Microsoft has unilaterally changed the conditions for the Novell Suse certificates that the company sells to its customers.
The move is intended to prevent that the company will be subjected to GPLv3 open source licence that was published last Friday. If Microsoft is bound by the licence, it would be forced to provide a royalty free patent licence to all users, developers and distributors of GPLv3 software. The phenomenon is referred to as GPLv3 contamination.
"Microsoft has decided that the Novell support certificates that we distribute to customers will not entitle the recipient to receive from Novell, or any other party, any subscription for support and updates relating to any code licensed under GPLv3," the company said in a statement on Thursday.
To customers, the move means that the certificate won't offer them support for GPLv3 software.
The move surprised Mark Radcliffe, a partner and software licensing expert with Silicon Valley law firm DLA Piper.
"What's interesting to me is: Microsoft is reacting to the GPLv3 so quickly," Radcliffe said.
"They never expressed their concerns. They never said: 'Look, we're going to pull the trigger and pull any GPLv3 code if you put this provision in.'"
"I guess they decided that they didn't like the risk level that they going to take."
Although the Linux kernel itself is unlikely to switch to GPLv3, several components that are bundled with the kernel to form what is described as Linux already have adopted the new licence. Over time it is expected that Linux distributions will combine both GPLv2 and GPLv3 components.
The certificates in question are part of the partnership that Microsoft and Novell signed in November. As part of the agreement, Microsoft paid US$240m for 70,000 coupons that entitle the owner to a free multi-year subscription to Novell's Suse Linux Enterprise Server software.
Technically the certificates entitle the holder to support from Novell. Microsoft merely provides the coupons to the user.
But the Software Freedom Law Center, a legal group that co-authored the GPLv3 and supports open source developers, claims that Novell is just acting as a clearing house and that Microsoft is the legal distributor of the software. When the group drafted the GPLv3, it chose not to block the Microsoft-Novell partnership because it believes that Microsoft will end up distributing GPLv3 software.
Novell meanwhile responded that it will provide support and updates regardless of Microsoft's changes to the terms and conditions. On a company blog, the firm stated that it will essentially continue to honour the Microsoft coupons under the original terms and conditions, including software components that are governed by GPLv3.
Legally however, there remain several open questions.
"The whole interaction of how [GPLv3] tries to deal with these certificates is a big legal hairball," DLA Piper's Radcliffe said.
"You've got this very unusual contractual provision that is trying to say: 'Yes, we have a contract between you and me. And that guy behind the tree named Microsoft, we're going to try to bind him to this agreement too.
"It's a very unusual provision. A lot of lawyers are scratching their heads about how enforceable it would be."
He also raised questions about Microsoft's ability to unilaterally change the terms of the coupons. Even though Microsoft is claiming that it is entitled to do so under the terms of the Novell agreement, the courts could enforce the original agreement if it finds that customers relied on the Microsoft promise in the original terms.