GPL 3 could hit Novell’s business hard

It’s been 16 years since version 2 of the GPL, the licence underpinning the open-source world. On Wednesday, the third draft of version 3 was published. So what does it mean for the open-source community? First, it takes account of comments Linus Torvalds and Hewlett-Packard made after the second draft. But it also puts Novell’s business at risk, effectively ruling out deals like the one it made with Microsoft. The question is whether that applies only to future agreements or also to documents signed before GPL 3 takes effect. Copyright specialist Mark Radcliffe says that if an analysis finds the Microsoft agreement incompatible with the new GPL, Microsoft could lose its right to distribute Linux products.
More details at this link.