Original URL:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/16/sflc_microsoft_gplv3/
Microsoft v TomTom: a GPLv3 wake-up call  Free software's alarm
bells ringing  By Gavin Clarke  Posted in Operating Systems,
16th April 2009 23:12 GMT  Microsoft's brawl with TomTom over
FAT patents has been seized on by software-freedom advocates as
a wake-up call for people to adopt GPLv3.  Open-source
developers can protect themselves, their customers and the cause
of software freedom in general by switching code currently under
GPLv2 to the updated GPLv3, the Software Freedom Law Center has
said.  GPLv3 will close potential gaps in the wording of the
GPLv2 that the SFLC believes Microsoft has exploited in order to
tie up a patent cross-licensing deal with TomTom.  The
organization believes Microsoft's been using this uncertainty to
also tie off other deals with a string of open-source users,
starting with Novell in 2005.  Under such deals, it seems,
Microsoft has accorded to assignees and their customers a
commitment not to prose