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Microsoft violated the General Public License v2 (GPLv2) when it distributed its Hyper-V Linux Integration Components (LinuxIC) without providing source code, says the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC).
There is a lot of discussion around the new Microsoft premise to offer freely documentation about its protocols and interfaces, and to not sue developers who use it to create code for non-commercial goals, even if they violate Microsoft patents. Some people think that this is done to avoid further pressure from the European Commission. It could be so - but there could be also a different rationale for it.
This is exactly what we were afraid of. Last month, when Microsoft sued Dutch GPS-maker TomTom on the principle that parts of Linux -- which form the guts of TomTom's device -- violate Microsoft's patents, we hoped for a quick settlement.
Distributors lose their rights when they violate GPLv2, but the Free Software Foundation is more forgiving in its license enforcement to encourage continued participation in the free software community. GPLv3 has improved termination provisions to codify this approach, giving developers one more reason to upgrade.
Microsoft's current FAT file system licensing program could hobble the development and free distribution of GPL-licensed software, says an open-source legal advocate. However, licensing terms that were once published on Microsoft's website, which have since vanished, would have been compatible with the GPL.
Microsoft filed suit against TomTom today, alleging that the in-car navigation company's devices violate eight of its patents -- including three that relate to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel.
I have been working on providing Microsoft Exchange capability for Akonadi on-and-off for a while.There is an emerging problem though: GPLv2 and GPLv3 are not compatible. My code is fine - it is "GPLv2 or later". The incompatibility is that Qt is released under GPLv2 (not "or later")
In course of the last decade, every once in a while Microsoft has been known to have accused Linux of infringing one of its patents or another. Despite the said multiple claims for years that elements of the open-source operating system violate its patents, Microsoft had restricted itself till 2009 to supporting legal action against Linux.
