Microsoft Extends Linux Covenant to Samsung

Late yesterday, Samsung and Microsoft jointly announced they had reached a broad cross-licensing arrangement to share patented technologies, in a move which Microsoft says was part of an effort to extend licenses for its technology to hardware manufacturers that deploy Linux and UNIX in software.

Cash will apparently be exchanged between the two companies, although the amounts may never be known. But the deal could set a precedent that may raise even more questions among the Linux community, especially over whether Microsoft should be licensing its technology ostensibly so others can use not Windows, but Linux.

Microsoft has other cross-licensing arrangements in place with Fuji Xerox, NEC, Siemens, SAP, Nortel, Cisco, Autodesk, Seiko Epson, plus the controversial deal with Novell, and a standing arrangement long-time partner Toshiba (which manufactures Zune hardware for Microsoft).

But the Samsung deal appears to be the first since the Novell deal in which Linux was involved. Microsoft has long claimed that certain elements of the Linux operating system are actually Microsoft's intellectual property.

The deal with Novell, the company said, amounted to a covenant that protected SUSE Linux customers -- as some argue, the responsible parties for Linux' use and distribution, under the terms of its own open license -- from lawsuits by Microsoft. Conceivably, this new deal with Samsung may state that Microsoft extends a similar covenant to Samsung's customers.

The joint statement from the two companies reads in part: "Samsung and its distributors and customers may utilize Microsoft's patents in Samsung's products with proprietary software, and Samsung will also obtain coverage from Microsoft for its customers' use of certain Linux-based products."

BetaNews has contacted Microsoft for clarification of these terms, which may be forthcoming.

Samsung presently produces multiple cell phones and handsets worldwide that support Linux, and actively supports deployment of Linux on its notebook computers, especially in the Asian market, as well as in Russia and Germany.

The timing of the deal is especially curious, just one week after Samsung's announcement of its intent to develop a dual-format HD DVD / Blu-ray disc player. Samsung has been one of the principal supporters of Blu-ray, with some of the least expensive equipment that has received the least amount of consumer complaints thus far. Microsoft, meanwhile, is one of HD DVD's leading champions, along with its technology partner in such matters, Toshiba.

6:10 pm April 19, 2007 - In a late statement to BetaNews this afternoon, David Kaefer, Microsoft's general manager for intellectual property licensing, had this response to our inquiry: "This agreement with Samsung employs a similar model to that between Novell and Microsoft and the patent protection it offers to Linux customers. In crafting this approach, we've listened to the Free Software Foundation and their comments about what terms must be present so that a patent agreement is compliant with the GPL as it exists today."

This is the first indication we've received from Microsoft directly that it is taking seriously - or that it is taking at all - the efforts of free software proponents. Authors of the General Public License are currently working to change the terms, to prevent future instances of licensees being allowed to enter into similar covenants with Microsoft. Samsung is not bound by the terms of GPL version 3 - which is still being drafted - and, as a Linux distributor, may still be held to the terms of the earlier version of the GPL which some feel Microsoft exploited in the case of Novell.