E.U. de facto endorses Microsoft's (claims of) Software Patents!
,----[ Quote ]
| Without explicitly saying that Microsoft does hold software patents
| applicable in the E.U., by allowing (the raison d'être of) and accepting the
| one-off payment of EUR 10,000 "to be paid by companies that dispute the
| validity or relevance of Microsoft's patents", the European Commission
| implicitly endorses Microsoft's claims of having the "interoperability
| information" covered by software patents!
|
| UNBELIEVABLE.
`----
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2007/10/30/15/13/02-e-u-de-facto-endorses-microsoft-
He curses Kroes.
Related:
Is Microsoft’s Europe agreement a big deal?
,----[ Quote ]
| If open source developers find greater protection for their work and its
| results in Europe than in America that’s where they will gravitate. That’s
| the kind of regime the EU is trying to create. We ignore that and dismiss
| that at our peril.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1584
Half A Loaf
,----[ Quote ]
| Yes, open source will have access to the interoperability information
| on "reasonable" terms (ask independent open source developers how many can
| afford to cough up the $15,000 such access will cost), but nothing in this
| statement indicates the Commission has overcome Microsoft's "refusa[al] to
| make the [patent] licence compatible with the open source business model." In
| fact, we can expect that nothing about that patent license will be compatible
| with the most widely used open source license, the GNU General Public
| License.
`----
http://walkingwithelephants.blogspot.com/2007/10/half-loaf.html
EU tells open source to start paying MS patent tax
,----[ Quote ]
| EU Commissioner Kroes' deal with Microsoft creates real dangers to Europe's
| growing open source economy, warns the FFII. Using patent licenses that
| exclude businesses, the software monopolist has turned the EU competition
| ruling into a victory, and now gets implicit support from the Commission to
| proceed aggressively against its competitors.
`----
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EU_tells_open_source_to_start_paying_MS_patent_tax
Late night baseball games, Microsoft concessions evoke big yawns at open source
water cooler
,----[ Quote ]
| It will benefit purveyors of proprietary software but not open source
| developers, agreed Michael Goulde, analyst of open source strategy at
| Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass. “Some open source developers believe
| that Microsoft should make its protocols available for use royalty free. In
| some cases, there are open source license restrictions that make it not
| possible for the software to include Microsoft licensed code – because you
| can’t downstream the license. So, unless Microsoft goes way beyond what it
| has agreed with the EU to do, only a subset of open source developers will
| have much interest. They’ll continue reverse engineering Microsoft protocols
| and doing the best they can."
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1582
Let's Make a Deal - The MS-EU Settlement
,----[ Quote ]
| The patent part is terrible. Worse than terrible. They are not blocked from
| offering patent deals, only constrained as to how much to charge for a
| license, which is not and never was the issue. So they'll beef up those
| initiatives, I'm sure. However, the good part is that they were compelled to
| separate the patent license offer out and make it optional. Thanks, but no
| thanks.
|
| [...]
|
| I'm guessing Microsoft lawyers are high fiving each other, having snatched an
| important victory from utter and total defeat. The rest is excellent, of
| course, and in no way do I mean to detract from the hard work and persistence
| that the EU Commission has shown. However, I don't think they understand how
| seriously broken the US patent system is currently, and how easy it is to
| abuse it, or they don't feel it's their job to fix the US problems, or how
| central patents are to Microsoft's current strategy against FOSS.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20071022114731199
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