Open Source Weblog

“I think it important for the community to know that Nat Friedman and Miguel de Icaza from Novell have been extremely clear with us that the existing covenant is not good enough,” he adds. Before noting that it is important to hear views from outside Novell as well. “That said, the real voice of the community is...well...from those of you I don't know.”

It is good on principle to see that Microsoft is concerned about getting the wording of its covenant right to ensure that individual open source developers can get on with developing software without fear of being sued by Microsoft, but in practice it appears that it could be a thankless and pointless task.

The covenant is aimed at an outdated view of open source development that does not match reality by attempting to draw a clear line between commercial and hobbyist development where no clear line exists.

“Our design goal is to get language in place that allows individual developers to keep developing. We are not interested in providing carte blanche clearance on patents to any commercial activity - that is a separate discussion to be had on a per-instance basis,” notes Matusow. “As you comment, please keep in mind that we are talking about individuals, not .orgs, not .com, not non-profits, not...well, not anyone other than individual non-commercial coders.”

One wonders why Microsoft felt the need to announce such a covenant at all. Simply not suing individual open source developers would achieve the same goal without all the hassle of trying to separate the open source community in to two distinct groups.

Microsoft has walked in to this minefield. Will you choose to help them navigate their way out? If so, you can leave a comment on Jason's blog.

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