TomTom is apparently being sued by Microsoft for alleged violation of 8 of their patents. Five of these patent issues relate to proprietary TomTom software, not open source.
The remaining patents are to do with long file names, the FAT file system and the use of these systems on FLASH EPROM devices. Specifically TomTom uses the DosFSTools program, which is part of linux. As I understand it, they use this to provide a way of updating their firmware. Now the GPL v2 section 7 apparently already prohibits TomTom from doing a cross-licensed deal with MS (as many companies are alleged to have done over this issue). If they do the deal, then they are obliged to stop distributing the software. That would kill the business as they would have no way of distributing updates to their firmware. The DosFSTools program is under GPL v3 which also disallows this. What on earth this has to do with MPFR switching to LGPL I do not know. Switching MPFR to LGPL v3+ certainly sends a clear message to the folks at Microsoft Research and indirectly to the folks who produce the GPL v2+ version of Sage that is used there. Let's clear up another misconception here. GPL v3+ software is NOT banned from Sage. This is explicitly stated online. It just doesn't get included in the GPL v2+ version of Sage, so that the folks at MSR can use it. Those who wish to penalise M$, please go ahead and change your licenses. It works! Bill. On 5 Mar, 18:10, Michel <michel.vandenbe...@uhasselt.be> wrote: > On Mar 5, 7:02 pm, Robert Bradshaw <rober...@math.washington.edu> > wrote: > > > > > On Mar 5, 2009, at 5:27 AM, Michel wrote: > > > > Hi all, > > > > Maybe it is time for Sage to drop its ban on GPL3 code? > > > This is a topic that we will certainly be revisiting in the future, > > but I see no reason it is imperative to do so now. > > > As long as backwards compatibility is maintained with MPFR 3.0, it > > will be easy to create a newer spkg, and those stuck in GPL2-only > > land will fall behind. > > > > After all there is the lawsuit of Microsoft against TomTom. > > > > If Microsoft does not behave nicely with people using open source > > > software there is zero reason to be nice to them. > > > It is not a question of politics or personal opinions about > > Microsoft. The fact is that, as of right now at least, a lot of > > people out there are using Windows. Like it or not, In order to > > provide a viable alternative to Magma, Maple, Mathematica and Matlab > > we *need* a native Windows port. Microsoft Research is helping fund > > such a project, and we are reciprocating by providing something they > > can use. > > But as I understand it, it is Microsoft that is blocking the inclusion > of GPL3 code into Sage (it was said on this list people paid by > Microsoft are not > allowed to run GPL3 code). If that is indeed the case it seems > Microsoft's help with the > Windows port is not helpful at all.... > > Michel > > > - Robert --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sage-devel-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URLs: http://www.sagemath.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
