Microsoft Promises Not To Sue Moonlight 2.0 Users 233
darthcamaro writes "Moonlight 2.0, Novell's open source implementation of the Microsoft media framework, is now available and comes with a new patent promise from Microsoft. Any Linux user can use it now without worrying about being sued: '"A really important change in how the community and individuals will see and use Moonlight is a change and extension to the patent covenant that Microsoft provides to Novell and its end users," Brian Goldfarb, director of Web and user experience platforms at Microsoft, told InternetNews.com. "We're now increasing the reach of the agreement — Microsoft's commitment not to sue Novell or Novell's customers now extends to redistributors."'"
Re:We won't sue you... (Score:5, Informative)
Estoppel?
Re:Netflix (Score:3, Informative)
No. Moonlight does not currently support DRM.
Re:We won't sue you... (Score:4, Informative)
Here, looked that up for you on m-w.com:
estoppel
One entry found.
Main Entry: estoppel
Pronunciation: \e-stä-pl\
Function: noun
Etymology: probably alteration of Anglo-French estopere stopping, from estoper
Date: 1531
: a legal bar to alleging or denying a fact because of one's own previous actions or words to the contrary
define:estoppel (Score:3, Informative)
Estoppel. [...] look this one up.
It would probably help even more if you told us what it meant.
Let me Google that for you [lmgtfy.com].
What about corporate developers or commercial use? (Score:5, Informative)
Hmmm....
As was (once again) pointed out on Groklaw recently, this sort of language is a restriction that is incompatible with the GPL [groklaw.net]. (GPLv2 section 6, much more explicit about patents in GPLv3 section 11.)
Far safer to avoid Microsoft patented technology than to rely on such a promise.
Re:Flash (Score:1, Informative)
Well Microsoft (with Intel) is going to release Silverlight 3 for Linux (more specifically Moblin) in 2010.
source:
http://team.silverlight.net/announcement/intel-and-microsoft-announce-collaboration-to-provide-great-experiences-for-atom/
Re:Includes Microsoft codec license (Score:3, Informative)
Also note that Novell will not distribute moonlight with the ffmpeg libs being used instead. They are too in bed with MS for them to allow the user to use truly free software.
Re:Great File Upload (Score:5, Informative)
No the best way to do it is to not do every fucking thing over port 80. Try FTP or SFTP, the browser is not the only damn thing a computer can be used for and there are more ports than just 80.
Damn kids these days.
Re:We won't sue you... (Score:4, Informative)
If RMS was never born then there would be no GNU. There would be no Linux. There would be no Apache. There would be no mainstream, payable internet at that time. There would be no netbooks. There would be no 3G modems in laptops. There would be no Android. The Intel atom would have never been created. There would be no Firefox. There would be no... well... want me to go on?
Re:Sod Off Microsoft (Score:5, Informative)
Yep. I was mildly interested in trying moonlight, because MS has put the famous Feynman lectures on physics [microsoft.com] online for free, in silverlight format. So when I saw the slashdot article today, I thought, OK, I'll try installing moonlight on my ubuntu box and see if it lets me watch the lectures. First off, I do an apt-get install moonlight-plugin-mozilla. Go to the MS web site. "Sorry, Silverlight for your browser is not officially supported. The full list of compatible browsers you [sic] can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx [microsoft.com]. Click on the link. "If you are using a Linux, FreeBSD or SolarisOS operating system, please press the Click to Install button to get the appropriate installation package for Silverlight." Okay, I click on the button and it sends me to go-mono.com [go-mono.com]. Download and install it. Restart my browser. Go back to the site for the Feynman lectures. "Sorry, Silverlight for your browser is not officially supported."
So here's this thing that almost no web site actually uses, and it doesn't actually work. And it's proprietary. And they promise not to sue me for using it. Woo hoo.
Re:What if... (Score:4, Informative)
This is an important question.
Microsoft has already tried selling patents [linuxfoundation.org] that could undermine Linux to patent trolls. If they have embeded patented methods in Mono/Moonlight, they could spring the trap at any time by selling the patent or transferring it to a proxy (like SCO).
Interestingly too, the promise very specifically only covers Moonlight.
"This patent covenant only applies to Moonlight and the version of Mono that ships with Moonlight," Goldfarb said.
The failure to extend the promise to Mono would suggest Microsoft would still like to retain the option of preventing any non-Novell Linux distro from including the full Mono at some point in the future.