3 Moonlight Questions

I got into a discussion on IRC the other day with a mono supporter. One of the things that came up on a tangent was Moonlight, Novell’s implementation of Microsoft’s weapon-of-hope against Adobe’s Flash.

There are a few questions I haven’t seen directly addressed, so I put them here for your bemusement:

IP implications

From Novell’s FAQ on Moonlight:

Q: What are the IP implications of running Moonlight in other Linux distributions other than SUSE Linux Enterprise?

A: There are none. Mono and Moonlight are open source projects delivered under various open source licenses. Details are available at http://mono-project.com/license. Moonlight will be available for Linux users on any distribution.

This seems to clearly state that Novell says Moonlight will have no “IP implications” on any Linux distro. (As an aside, it also implies Mono and Moonlight share the same sort of licensing and “IP implications”.)

From Microsoft’s Covenant to Downstream Recipients of Moonlight:

“Intermediate Recipients” means resellers, recipients, and distributors to the extent they are authorized (directly or indirectly) by Novell or its Subsidiaries to resell, license, supply, distribute or otherwise make available Moonlight Implementations (whether the resale, licensing, supplying, making available, or distribution is on a stand-alone basis, or on an OEM basis as bundled with hardware or other software of the reseller or distributor, or otherwise, so long as it is not bundled with a Linux operating system other than Novell-branded operating system software), except for resellers, recipients, or distributors who are in the business of offering their own branded operating system software.

This seems to un-clearly state that only Novell-branded distros are covered under Microsoft’s “covenant”.

Question One: Are non-Novell distros safe under Microsoft’s covenant?

Furthermore, the “covenant” says:

“Moonlight Implementation” means only those specific portions of Moonlight 1.0 or Moonlight 1.1 that run only as a plug-in to a browser on a Personal Computer and are not licensed under GPLv3 or a Similar License.

Question Two: Are other versions (read: Moonlight 2.0) safe under Microsoft’s covenant?

Further more, a personal computer is defined as:

“Personal Computer” means a general purpose computer (including a laptop, tablet PC, desktop or ultra mobile personal computer) that is
(i) designed and marketed for operating a wide variety of productivity, ntertainment and/or other software applications from unrelated third parties; and

(ii) runs a general purpose consumer operating system (such as Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Vista, Apple Macintosh OS X, SUSE Linux, etc.). Personal Computers do not include personal digital assistants (PDAs), Pocket PCs, or mobile telephones.

Question Three: Are Linux-based mobile devices safe under Microsoft’s covenant?

Finally, just an image I found funny. The whole document is available from Microsoft’s Interop Ability site. Select the “Novell & Microsoft Collaboration Roadmap” link.

EDITED to add followup 24May2009:

I asked these same questions in the discussion of an Ars Technica puff-piece on Moonlight, and got a response from Miguel de Icaza (or someone claiming to be him).