Blog: Pete Loshin

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Microsoft Twisting Arms Under the Table over Open Source?

Want to read something disturbing? Check this out: Novell-Microsoft pact not about interoperability, says Open Source leader. Don Marti, of LinuxWorld, interviewed Jeremy Allison, co-founder of the Samba project and the guy who quit Novell over their Linux deal with Microsoft.

Apparently, Microsoft is asking for, and getting, payments from corporations to use open source software.

See below for all the gory details.

According to Allison, Microsoft is going around to their big corporate clients and asking for payments to cover the use of open source software that Microsoft claims infringe Microsoft's patents.

Don asks:

One of the persistent rumors that’s going around is that certain large IT customers have already been paying Microsoft for patent licensing to cover their use of Linux, Samba and other free software projects. And the Novell deal -- isn’t it just taking that and doing the same kind of thing wholesale?

And Jeremy replies:

Yes, that’s true, actually. I mean I have had people come up to me and essentially off the record admit that they had been threatened by Microsoft and had got patent cross license and had essentially taken out a license for Microsoft patents on the free software that they were using, which they then cannot redistribute. I think that would be the restriction. I would have to look quite carefully. So, essentially that’s not allowed. But they’re not telling anyone about it. They’re completely doing it off the record....

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