Microsoft's Open Specification Promise: No Assurance for GPL
,----[ Quote ]
| There has been much discussion in the free software community and in the
| press about the inadequacy of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) as a
| standard, including good analysis of some of the shortcomings of Microsoft's
| Open Specification Promise (OSP), a promise that is supposed to protect
| projects from patent risk. Nonetheless, following the close of the ISO-BRM
| meeting in Geneva, SFLC's clients and colleagues have continued to express
| uncertainty as to whether the OSP would adequately apply to implementations
| licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). In response to these
| requests for clarification, we publicly conclude that the OSP provides no
| assurance to GPL developers and that it is unsafe to rely upon the OSP for
| any free software implementation, whether under the GPL or another free
| software license.
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http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/osp-gpl.html
It seems like Apple has some new problems with patent trolls like Microsoft and
its ilk (Intellectual Ventures, Acacia and so on).
Apple sued over iTunes technology
,----[ Quote ]
| Atlanta-based ZapMedia Services Inc. sued Apple in U.S. District Court for
| the Eastern District of Texas, accusing the Cupertino-based company of
| violating two ZapMedia patents.
`----
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080313/ap_on_hi_te/apple_itunes_lawsuit
"Microsoft: still a bunch of gangsters."
-- Financial Times Writer, reaction to Microsoft 'open' pledge, 2008
http://fussnotes.typepad.com/plexnex/2008/02/wilcox-watch-bu.html
Related:
FSFE calls on Microsoft to release interoperability information without
restrictions
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is the last company that actively promotes the use of software
| patents to restrict interoperability. This kind of behaviour has no place in
| an Internet society where all components should connect seamlessly regardless
| of their origin," says Georg Greve, president of the Free Software Foundation
| Europe.
`----
http://fsfeurope.org/news/2008/news-20080228-01.en.html
Yahoo Patent Troll
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvFUSHwRXJE
Who is the world's biggest patent troll?
,----[ Quote ]
| In two consecutive days, The Wall Street Journal presented two different
| answers. The first is not surprising: Intellectual Ventures, the brainchild
| of ex-Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold. It's now out "to raise as much as
| $1 billion to help develop and patent inventions, many of them from
| universities in Asia."
`----
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9816163-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
Playing Microsoft Patent Poker
,----[ Quote ]
| This time though, while Ballmer slinks away to try to con … convince people
| that Microsoft Unified Communications somehow offers people more than what
| Cisco's VOIP (voice over IP) been offering customers for years, a patent
| attack finally launches at Linux. Specifically, IP Innovation, a subsidiary
| of Acacia Technologies Group, has filed a patent infringement claim against
| Linux distributors Novell and Red Hat.
|
| So was it just timing, or was it something more? Let's take a look at the
| players.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2201579,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
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