“The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today released the following
statement in response to claims by Microsoft regarding their
obligations under the GNU GeneralPublic License version 3
(GPLv3).“In its November 2006 deal with Novell, Microsoft attempted to
use its patent portfolio to divide and conquer the free software
community. It did so by extending narrow and discriminatory
promises not to sue certain classes of Novell SUSE GNU/Linux
customers for patent infringement, while leaving others vulnerable
to attack, including noncommercial developers and users of other
GNU/Linux distributions. Microsoft’s ultimate aim in this scheme
was the de facto proprietization of free software: it hoped that
frightened users would be willing to pay one favored distributor
just to be safe from lawsuits. Though the details and timing were a
surprise, it was no isolated incident; Microsoft has engaged in
anticompetitive conduct in the software industry for many years,
and has sought to attack free software for almost as long…”