Novell's Moonlight is an open source implementation of Silverlight, enabling Linux users to view Silverlight content. However, Novell's three-year-old patent agreement with Microsoft left the door open to intellectual property challenges by the software giant for users on non-Novell Linux distros. That's now no longer an issue. Linux Planet has the story.

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Microsoft and Novell are broadening their three-year-old patent agreement, extending it for the first time to include all users of Moonlight, Novell's open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight media framework -- regardless of their version of Linux.

In 2006, Novell and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) entered into a joint patent and interoperability agreement, giving Novell users the OK to use open source technologies on which the software giant has said it may have intellectual property claims.

As a result of today's expansion of that deal, Moonlight users will enjoy protection under the patent covenant regardless of whether they're using Novell's (NASDAQ: NOVL) Linux distro or another distributor's.

"A really important change in how the community and individuals will see and use Moonlight is a change and extension to the patent covenant that Microsoft provides to Novell and its end users," Brian Goldfarb, director of Web and user experience platforms at Microsoft, told InternetNews.com. "We're now increasing the reach of the agreement -- Microsoft's commitment not to sue Novell or Novell customers now extends to redistributors."

Read the full story at Linux Planet:
Novell Moonlight 2.0 Gets Microsoft's Blessing