[OT] MS EULA -- (will ActiveState become outlaws? ;-)

[Steven D. Majewski]

Is this the next stage of Microsoft's war against Open Source ?

Discussion of this on SlashDot :
<http://slashdot.org/articles/01/06/21/1810258.shtml>
( Right before the article on the Monty Python Action Figures! ) 

If this spreads to all of Microsoft's EULA's, will this make
ActiveState illegal ?  They don't specifically mention Python's
license, but they do mention Perl's ( and the "similar to any
of the following" clause would seem to include Python's. ) 

Does anyone know if this should be taken seriously ? 

-- Steve Majewski


<http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdn-files/027/001/516/eula_mit.htm>

   (c)   Open Source.  Recipients license rights to the Software are
conditioned upon Recipient (i) not distributing such Software, in whole or
in part, in conjunction with Potentially Viral Software (as defined
below); and (ii) not using Potentially Viral Software (e.g. tools) to
develop Recipient software which includes the Software, in whole or in
part.  For purposes of the foregoing, Potentially Viral Software means
software which is licensed pursuant to terms that: (x) create, or purport
to create, obligations for Microsoft with respect to the Software or
(y) grant, or purport to grant, to any third party any rights to or
immunities under Microsofts intellectual property or proprietary rights in
the Software.  By way of example but not limitation of the foregoing,
Recipient shall not distribute the Software, in whole or in part, in
conjunction with any Publicly Available Software.  Publicly Available
Software means each of (i) any software that contains, or is derived in
any manner (in whole or in part) from, any software that is distributed as
free software, open source software (e.g. Linux) or similar licensing or
distribution models; and (ii) any software that requires as a condition of
use, modification and/or distribution of such software that other software
distributed with such software (A) be disclosed or distributed in source
code form; (B) be licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or
(C) be redistributable at no charge.  Publicly Available Software
includes, without limitation, software licensed or distributed under any
of the following licenses or distribution models, or licenses or
distribution models similar to any of the following: (A) GNUs General
Public License (GPL) or Lesser/Library GPL (LGPL), (B) The Artistic
License (e.g., PERL), (C) the Mozilla Public License, (D) the Netscape
Public License, (E) the Sun Community Source License (SCSL), and (F) the
Sun Industry Standards License (SISL).