[clug] Mono in Linux

[Chris Smart]

2009/6/2 Nathan O'Sullivan <nathan.osullivan at team.mammoth.com.au>:
>
> I think we are not talking about Microsoft's .NET implementation (I have no
> idea what its license is), but Mono. Mono is provided under the GPL license
> (and LGPL for some parts)

So that means that Novell can't sue users of Mono over patents they
hold for the implementation, but that doesn't mean that Microsoft
can't. Novell has licensed the patents in .NET from Microsoft to put
into Mono. But that agreement will soon expire and only covers Novell
customers, not the wider development community (unlike the
Samba-Microsoft agreement).

> We have a GPL product from Sun (Java) and a GPL product from Novell (Mono).
> From what I can see, the software license has nothing to do with how
> dangerous patents may be that a third party (Microsoft) may hold.

You're right in that Java and Mono as open source projects are just as
open to patent threats form 3rd parties. But the difference is that
Sun owns the Java technology, but Novell doesn't own .NET technology.

Yes, Microsoft could turn around and sue Novell (as soon as the
agreement expires) and all other users of Mono today. They might
choose to only sue users who have not purchased licenses from Novell,
we don't know.

The problem is that there is no way for end users to escape this if
Novell does not remove those patents from Mono because they themselves
are covered. In fact this is most likely Novell's game. Force people
to buy licenses from them in order to get patent protection, and if
users don't then they will let Microsoft sue them. Novell is not an
open source company.

Certainly, Novell could then modify Mono so that it does not violate
Microsoft's patents (just like any other project) but because .NET is
controlled by Microsoft, this would break interoperability.

On the other hand, Sun cannot sue people over using their patents in
Java. If a third party does sue Sun or end users, the Java framework
can be changed and the issue resolved. Java is controlled by the
organisation who releases the code, so it's very different (not ideal
of course, but much more safe than Mono and .NET).

-c