● 06.17.07

●● Novell’s “Hobbyist” Workforce as Cheap Microsoft Labour?

Posted in Courtroom, GNU/Linux, GPL, Law, Novell, OpenSUSE at 10:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Alpha 5 of Opensuse 10.3 was announced just days ago. It is a good time to mention Groklaw’s latest article which addresses Novell’s effect on “free labour”. It unfolds and analyses the entanglement Novell’s deal with Microsoft presents to developers.

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So, I understand this to mean that Microsoft pays these researchers to think and study and figure out ways to innovate in search so Microsoft can beat Google and Yahoo. Microsoft, I would guess, gets rights to the IP in some fashion. No wonder it has spent a fair amount of effort trying to get the community to drop the GPL and adopt the BSD license instead.

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Of course, in Microsoft’s plan, it would be the end of competition against Microsoft by the GPL or by anybody in any real way, because one misstep, and Microsoft reserves the right to sue your pants off.

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It’s a good read overall. If you are developing under Novell’s wing as a so-called “hobbyist”, maybe it’s time to ‘switch team’. You already have an open invitation.

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