After takin' a swig o' grog, Roy Schestowitz belched out this bit o' wisdom:
> __/ [ 7 ] on Friday 09 March 2007 21:37 \__
>
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> Microsoft lands first licensee in EU protocol program
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | The program, which stems from the European Commission's historic
>>> | March 2004 order, requires Microsoft to license its protocol
>>> | technology at "reasonable and nondiscriminatory" terms. A goal
>>> | of the program is to provide all licensees, even Microsoft rivals,
>>> | with the ability to create server-based products that will
>>> | interoperate with Microsoft's technology.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6165514.html
>>
>> I think the dumb asses in EU must have forgot open source
>> protocols are free for them to use and interoperate through
>> without having to pay. If they MUST pay, they should pay
>> the maintainers or tender to get subcontractors that can maintain it.
>
> This is a very dangerous thing, a precedence. Microsoft even /paid/ to do a
> press release about it. The EC has explicitly called it "too trivial to be
> patentable". Microsoft is trying to say here that people now need to pay in
> order to connect to a Windows PC/server. And then there's Novell's role. One
> wonders if Microsoft 'sponsored' this latest deal (just like it paid Novell
> a third of a billion dollars) for admission of guilt (or "swallowing a
> bug").
That link above, it sounds like SCO all over again. Trumpeting some
sucker buying your license.
And not succeeding too well:
Microsoft also operates a protocol licensing program in the United
States, where it has 27 licensees. However, U.S. antitrust
authorities are also having issues with that program.
Microsoft is obviously having more trouble giving people the snow-job
lately.
Knowledge is power.
--
Q: Why does a Linux user compile his kernel?
A: Because he can.
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