MS "bans" GPL

[Michael Ströder]

David LeBlanc wrote:
> 
> In article <slrn9k3ji4.49l.gerhard.nospam at lilith.hqd-internal>,
> gerhard.nospam at bigfoot.de says...
> <snip>
> 
> > You don't try to spread FUD, do you? No matter what MS or
> > any other company writes into their "license agreements", not 
> > everything is compatible with German or US or whatever laws.
> 
> I'm gratified to know that you are aware enough to know that, and that
> further you can afford to take Microsoft to court if needs be.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.

Well, at least here in Germany almost everything M$ or other similar
software vendors write into their "license agreements" will fail in
court (AGB-Gesetz) as long as you don't register the software. And
the good things is that they would have to take you to court and
prove their point of view.

> Microsoft, like other companies and even
> governments, either counts on people's ignorance or inability to contest
> their behavior

Nevertheless you're right that it's even annoying that they try to
make people believe the crap they're writing about Open Source by
"enforcing" such a license.

Remember: Don't register software!

> Opinion: It would not be illegal for Microsoft to make it a condition of
> use that you not install open source software if you want to use their
> OS.

I don't think so. In Germany a software vendor cannot restrict the
dedicated use (I hope I translated "bestimmungsgemäße Benutzung"
correctly) of software. The dedicated use of an operating system is
being a platform for running arbitrary applications. I think they
would fail miserably in court - at least here in Germany (don't know
anything about other countries). IMHO M$ will never try to really
enforce such rules in a trial.

Ciao, Michael.