Novell chief executive Ron Hovsepian has directly contradicted
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer over what a recent deal
between the two firms means in an open letter to software
developers.
Meanwhile, open source pioneers are framing a new version of a
common open source licence which would seek to extend an indemnity
offered by Microsoft to Novell users to users of all open source
software.
"We disagree with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the
topic of Linux and patents," said a highly unusual open letter from
Hovsepian which responds to outrage among developers at the deal
signed by the firm.
Novell and Microsoft agreed to co-operate on interoperability of
their systems, but more controversially also agreed not to pursue
each other's customers for patent infringement. Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer then went on to claim that the deal recognised its rights
in open source operating system Linux and that people who bought
non-Novell versions of Linux were opening themselves up to patent
infringement law suits.
"Importantly, our agreement with Microsoft is in no way an
acknowledgment that Linux infringes upon any Microsoft intellectual
property," wrote Hovsepian. "When we entered the patent cooperation
agreement with Microsoft, Novell did not agree or admit that Linux
or any other Novell offering violates Microsoft patents."
"Our interest in signing this agreement was to secure
interoperability and joint sales agreements, but Microsoft asked
that we cooperate on patents as well, and so a patent cooperation
agreement was included as a part of the deal," wrote Hovsepian. "In
this agreement, Novell and Microsoft each promise not to sue the
other's customers for patent infringement. The intended effect of
this agreement was to give our joint customers peace of mind that
they have the full support of the other company for their IT
activities. Novell has a significant patent portfolio, and in
reflection of this fact, the agreement we signed shows the
overwhelming balance of payments being from Microsoft to
Novell."
Following the deal, Ballmer said that users of non-Novell Linux
systems could owe it money for infringement. "Novell pays us some
money for the right to tell customers that anybody who uses SUSE
Linux is appropriately covered," he said recently, according to
Computerworld. "This is important to us, because we believe every
Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance sheet
liability."
Ballmer said in a question and answer session at a technology
conference that Microsoft signed the deal because Linux "uses our
intellectual property" and it wanted to "get the appropriate
economic return for our shareholders from our innovation."
But Microsoft seems to be backing away from direct
confrontation. It issued a statement saying that Novell was right
to say that the agreement did not cover patents.
"We at Microsoft respect Novell's point of view on the patent
issue, even while we respectfully take a different view," said the
statement. "Novell is absolutely right in stating that it did not
admit or acknowledge any patent problems as part of entering into
the patent collaboration agreement. At Microsoft we undertook our
own analysis of our patent portfolio and concluded that it was
necessary and important to create a patent covenant for customers
of these products. We are gratified that such a solution is now in
place."
