● 12.16.10

●● Red Hat Employees Accuse Mac Asay of Lying About GPLv3

Posted in FSF, FUD, Google, GPL, Red Hat, Ubuntu at 5:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: False claim is said to have been spread about Google and the FSF

Just when one thinks that GPLv3 FUD from the likes of ACT [1, 2, 3] (Microsoft lobbyist) is years behind, Mac [sic] Asay, who recently left Canonical to join a proprietary software company, engages in revisionism, perhaps sloppily rather than intentionally (he never acts maliciously).

Red Hat’s Harish Pillay redents the message from a Red Hat colleague, Mr. Fontana, one of the key lawyers. “(WARNING Asayroll),” says the message, “Matt Asay suggests FSF caved in to Google pressure in GPLv3 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/03/mozilla_freedom/ ↺ source of this claim

Needless to say, Google is not a fan of AGPL and in general Google prefers licences like Apache. Google has some reasons for disliking GPLv3 because Google is not against software patents. Red Hat’s Jan Wildeboer writes: “#USPTO fails again. Googles newest patent “highlight terms in docs” http://is.gd/iKbKE – this is what emacs et al can do since like the 60s”

There is also this new catch from BNET:

Google’s Newest Patent: The Browser Search Highlight Button [Update]

“[O]h, come off it,” writes Glyn Moody in response, “a pox on your PhDs if this is the result” (Google has some other very ridiculous software patents). █

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