After takin' a swig o' grog, ws belched out this bit o' wisdom:
> Tim Smith wrote:
>>
>> How's that different from your hypocrisy? You claim to champion open
>> standards, but support ODF, which is not fully open. It's not open
>> because Sun retains veto power over any new versions of it through their
>> patent license. (Their patent grant only covers version 1.0, and any
>> subsequent versions that they participate in the development of. If
>> they decide they don't like the direction the community wants to go with
>> any subsequent version of ODF, they simply can not participate in its
>> development, and then their patents prevent it from being used).
>>
>> You've bitched repeatedly about Microsoft's .NET patents, which are much
>> more liberally licensed for free software than Sun's ODF patents.
>
> You do sound very pouty, and as far as ODF goes, the current version has
> a legal opinion attached:
>
> http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2006/OpenDocument.html
>
> and while .NET patents could possibly be "more free", this doesn't mean
> that implementing the framework in which .NET runs won't be encumbered.
> And that is the big gotcha that people are keeping away from.
Tim's requests for rigor apparently apply only to others. The man is
incredible.
Taken from the URL:
Conclusion
On the basis of the facts presented, for the reasons given, and with
the reservations and limitations noted, it is our opinion that:
1. Under the relevant OASIS patent policy, all Essential Claims
held by OASIS Technical Committee Obligated Members are available
to all implementors of ODF on terms compatible with free and open
source software licenses.
2. Sun's license terms for access to its Essential Claims
are fully compatible with free and open source software
licensing.
* Sun's terms are compatible with contribution
and licensing under the policies and license of the Apache
Software Foundation.
* Sun's terms are not in conflict with
Section 7 of the Free Software Foundation's GNU General
Public License, and are not otherwise incompatible with the
GPL.
We are authorized to represent our
clients' agreement with the opinion
here stated.
Very truly yours,
Eben Moglen
--
Tux rox!
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