Microsoft: We're not bound by GPLv3

Now that version 3 of the General Public License is finally out, it's about time that the first malcontents started complaining about it. Oh, wait, that already happened almost a year ago. Well, it's certainly high time vendors started denying they are obliged to comply by the terms of the license. Enter Microsoft. Despite recent deals with Linux vendors Novell, Xandros and Linspire, the company claims it is unaffected by the recent release of GPLv3. Microsoft is "not a party to the GPLv3 license, and none of its actions are to be misinterpreted as accepting status as a contracting party of GPLv3 or assuming any legal obligations under such license," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing, said July 5. "In fact, we do not believe that Microsoft needs a license under GPL to carry out any aspect of its collaboration with Novell, including its distribution of support certificates, even if Novell chooses to distribute GPLv3 code in the future. Furthermore, Microsoft does not grant any implied or express patent rights under or as a result of GPLv3, and GPLv3 licensors have no authority to represent or bind Microsoft in any way," Gutierrez elaborated in a statement. Is Microsoft above the open-source law? More importantly, will there be any end to Microsoft's incessant baiting of the open-source community?

For more on the announcement:
- see this eWeek article