Microsoft Promises Not To Sue Moonlight 2.0 Users

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."'"

We won't sue you...

[CityZen]

until we change our mind.

Really, what's to prevent them from waiting until the tech is firmly embraced, then changing the deal?

Wonderful Marketing

[Anonymous Coward]

Please use our format, even if we didn't sell you anything to view it, we promise we won't sue!

Now that's marketing in action.

Doesn't anybody proof read?

[lolwhat]

"Moonlight 2.0, that's Novell's open source implementation of the Microsoft media framework in now available and with comes a new patent promise from Microsoft."

IT'S A TRAP!

[h4rr4r]

Without the DRM pack it is totally worthless. Plus it is far behind silverlight.

IT'S A TRAP!

Sod Off Microsoft

[segedunum]

I'm not the slightest bit interested. The only time I've ever used Silverlight is when I've watched SkyTV online in the UK as a media thingy for your browser. It doesn't interest me elsewhere (and I doubt whether that alone will sustain it long-term), as any kind of 'new' development platform (ActiveX 2.0?) and I'm certainly not interested in using it on non-Windows platforms because said media stuff doesn't work regardless. Just stop trying to legitimise Silverlight on other platforms because you aren't gaining any traction and stop using it to legitimise all of your patent bullshit. Anyone who works under that kind if duress, from a competitor no less, is stir-fry crazy.

Re:We won't sue you...

[Coriolis]

Estoppel. Seriously. It would really help the tone of this endlessly recurring argument if people would just look this one up.

Not a prob

[ultrabot]

The problem is not being sued.

The problem is that we don't necessarily want this MS-driven environment to become popular among devs.

Re:Sod Off Microsoft

[poetmatt]

nobody is interested. It isn't compatible with major apps that have been forced to use silverlight (as those use the latest version - not this moonlight 2.0), so from a user side there's 0 reason to use the stuff. Additionally, there's still a lack of other licensing and silverlight is a bunch of shit in general, and thankfully when HTML5 adoption comes around all of this garbage will be gone.

I don't know what to beleive

[Locke2005]

When Steve Balmer says "Fucking Eric Schmidt is a fucking pussy. I'm going to fucking bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again. I'm going to fucking kill Google." [battellemedia.com] we are not supposed to believe this is an actual threat, but when he says "we won't sue you", we're supposed to believe he's telling the literal truth?

Re:We won't sue you...

[PinkyGigglebrain]

Like MS will really care about what a US Judge will say considering how "harshly" they where punished for using their monopoly to stifle, cripple and/or destroy competition in the USA. Even to the point of putting code in Windows to generate fake error messages, remember DR-DOS/Win 3.1?

As to MS customers, like Joe Idiot Public will even notice, much less care, what MS does to f*ck over Linux. For the most part JIP doesn't even know there is ANYTHING besides Windows. Seriously, I once read a post on another tech board claiming that OX10.x was nothing but an app running on top of Windows. I hope he was a Troll but I doubt it. As long as he can email his mistress, manage his Fantasy Football team and surf porn you will not hear a peep from them no matter what MS does.

Re:Flash

[mdm-adph]

That's nice -- why don't Microsoft just release a version of Silverlight for Linux, themselves? Why depend upon some other group? Sure doesn't make me confident in Silverlight/Moonlight's future prospects for maintenance on Linux, that's for sure.

Re:Flash

[DoofusOfDeath]

This helps them to compete with flash much more effectively. Now they are putting rest on doubters to use it on linux. I think this is good. Also, this helps Adobe to work hard on developing much better support for Linux.

And what do you think will happen if/when MS succeeds in pushing Flash out of the marketplace?

Just how much peace/love/flowers/self-restraint Microsoft's legal department will have once they no longer need to woo users away from Flash?

Re:We won't sue you...

[nschubach]

Then why make a promise in the first place, just make it free. There's a reason behind this "promise."

Re:Flash

[tepples]

And what do you think will happen if/when MS succeeds in pushing Flash out of the marketplace?

If Microsoft succeeds in making Silverlight match Flash feature-for-feature, people who want to make cartoons on Newgrounds won't have to pay $700, go back to school to qualify for academic pricing, or commit copyright infringement to get a copy of Flash anymore.

Re:IT'S A TRAP!

[nschubach]

We promise not to sue you, but we won't promise not to put in something proprietary and usage encumbering later.

Re:Netflix

[wile_e8]

My alma mater's sporting event internet streams recently moved to CBS All-Access, and I've been missing out on them since All-Access uses Silverlight. I've been trying the Moonlight 2.0 betas though, and they still don't work, probably because the site is using Silverlight 3.0. And I'm sure that Moonlight 3.0 will come out just after All-Access moves to 4.0.

Re:We won't sue you...

[Anachragnome]

"Really, what's to prevent them from waiting until the tech is firmly embraced, then changing the deal?"

A broad-reaching statement that they wouldn't sue?

I'm sure someone would bring it up in court if they did sue.

Where is the catch?

[Anonymous Coward]

The article does not contain an actual link to an actual Microsoft statement.

Before I buy this I want to see the actual statement and see legal analysis of iot to see what catches there are.

Examples:
If this is based on the Novell agreement then it only extends to Novell customers, not to all of linux.

If this is like the the Community Promise for Mono, then what prevents them from selling the patents to patent trolls to sue Moonlight users?

They already tried this once: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/171589/open_source_group_buys_microsoft_patents_to_ward_off_patent_trolls.html
fortunately they sold to the wrong patent trolls.

I'm sure there's nothing to worry about

[NotPeteMcCabe]

There's nothing to worry about; the program is named wontsueforsure.

Re:Not a prob

[Anonymous Coward]

To me the problem is using a platform where somebody must promise not to sue me to even begin to make it viable. Never mind appealing.

Sorry, but no deal.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am no fanboy. My machine has an NVIDIA card and tuns of closed-source games on it.

That said, I am not stupid. I know that if Silverlight ever becomes a dominant force in the realm of content delivery, MS will stab me in the back by either deliberately slowing development on the Linux version, or making it incompatible with the latest version that runs on Windows.

We should stick with Flash. It may suck, but at least it isn't controlled by a monopoly OS vendor who lacks any kind of ethics.