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Microsoft, Linux Foundation issue joint letter opposing proposed software-licensing principles
All about Microsoft — ... Truth can, indeed, be stranger than fiction — as is evidenced by a May 14 letter on software-licensing policies that was signed by both Microsoft and Linux Foundation officials. The letter, which the two sent to to the American Law Institute (ALI), was designed to “ express our shared concerns with the group’s draft Principles of the Law of Software Contracts ,” according to a blog post by Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. (Yes, that same Horacio Gutierrez who is known for claiming f ...

Microsoft and Linux Foundation: I love you, man!
Preston Gralla's blog — ... legal subjects." The document in question is the group's draft Principles of the Law of Software Contracts. The joint letter concerns the part of the document that is about warranties on software defects. I'm not going to get into the fine points of the mumbo-jumbo involved, but both Microsoft and the Linux Foundation believe that the ALI document will lead to lots of unnecessary litigation. Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, had this to say about it in his blog : The ALI Principles are meant to provide guidance to judges ...

The defendants' problem with software liability
Open Source — There is a great ho-ho-hoing going on about news Microsoft and the Linux Foundation have sent out a joint letter against creating liability for software defects. (Picture from CNET’s Download Blog.) But there are practical problems as well, only some of which are covered by Raymond Nimmer’s in-depth critique of the proposal. First, as Nimmer points out, this is going nowhere. Only two states have passed anything like the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) which the ...

Linux Foundation joins Microsoft in opposing software defect warranties
Betanews — ... In a statement over the weekend posted to his company's legal blog, Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Horatio Gutierrez -- co-author of the letter to the ALI -- sounded a note of hope that his company's cooperation with Linux on this matter could be a sign of future partnerships to come. "Our industry is diverse and sometimes contentious, but if nothing else unites us it is that we all believe in the power of software," Gutierrez wrote. "I hope that this represents just one of many opportunities to collaborate with the Linux Foundation and others going forward. We ...