Interesting Microsoft license clause re open source

[Lou Grinzo]

This is bordering on the bizarre, IMO.  I bet the lawyers will have a field
day deciding what "in conjunction with" means.  (On the same disk?
Dynamically linked?  Statically linked?  In the same archive, even if it's
unrelated software?  From the same ftp directory?)

In more general terms I'm also wondering where the line is in terms of what
kind of restrictions you can and can't impose on people.  Could you say they
can only use the software if they had pancakes for breakfast and are wearing
blue socks?



Take care,
Lou

-----Original Message-----
From: Chloe Hoffman [mailto:chloehoffman at hotmail.com]
Sent: Monday, June 25, 2001 9:40 AM
To: license-discuss at opensource.org; debian-legal at lists.debian.org
Subject: Interesting Microsoft license clause re open source

Please excuse cross-posting.

In light of recent discussions regarding license incompatibilities, thought
members of these list might be interested in this explicit statement of
incompatibility in a new beta license from MS, a license which allows for
the limited creation and distribution of derivative works. Comments?

(c)   Open Source.  Recipient's license rights to the Software are
conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or
in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined below);
and (ii) not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to develop
Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in part.  For
purposes of the foregoing, "Potentially Viral Software" means software which
is licensed pursuant to terms that: (x) create, or purport to create,
obligations for Microsoft with respect to the Software or (y) grant, or
purport to grant, to any third party any rights to or immunities under
Microsoft's intellectual property or proprietary rights in the Software.  By
way of example but not limitation of the foregoing, Recipient shall not
distribute the Software, in whole or in part, in conjunction with any
Publicly Available Software.  "Publicly Available Software" means each of
(i) any software that contains, or is derived in any manner (in whole or in
part) from, any software that is distributed as free software, open source
software (e.g. Linux) or similar licensing or distribution models; and (ii)
any software that requires as a condition of use, modification and/or
distribution of such software that other software distributed with such
software (A) be disclosed or distributed in source code form; (B) be
licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or (C) be
redistributable at no charge.  Publicly Available Software includes, without
limitation, software licensed or distributed under any of the following
licenses or distribution models, or licenses or distribution models similar
to any of the following: (A) GNU's General Public License (GPL) or
Lesser/Library GPL (LGPL), (B) The Artistic License (e.g., PERL), (C) the
Mozilla Public License, (D) the Netscape Public License, (E) the Sun
Community Source License (SCSL), and (F) the Sun Industry Standards License
(SISL).

Click on Download at this URL to see the license in full -
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/default.asp?URL=/code/sample.asp?url=/MS
DN-FILES/027/001/516/msdncompositedoc.xml
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