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[News] OOXML Still Seen Losing, Microsoft Lies Again About Legal Trap

  • Subject: [News] OOXML Still Seen Losing, Microsoft Lies Again About Legal Trap
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 16:05:57 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Freelance
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
OOXML Vote Coverage

,----[ Quote ]
| Votes
| 
| P Members:
| 
| Canada: No
| Czech Republic: Yes
| USA: Yes
| India: No
| China: No
| Belgium: Abstain
| Germany: Yes
| Netherlands: Abstain
| Denmark: No
| Finland: Yes
| Kenya: Abstain
| 
| O Members:
| 
| Brazil: No
| Cuba: No
| Romania: Yes
| 
| Predicted total result
| 
| P Approval: 60.6%, (higher than 66.7% needed).
| Overall No Votes: 24.3%, (lower than 25% needed).
| 
| OOXML Fails.
`----

http://commandline.org.uk/more/formats/ooxml-coverage-2008-03-27-22-20.html

Microsoft: We won't sue over future OOXML versions

,----[ Quote ]
| Linux Australia president Stewart Smith said Microsoft's announcement has 
| helped to allay fears over one issue that the SLFC raised but did not deal 
| with its biggest concern: that the OSP-covered specifications are not 
| compatible with the General Public License (GPL).   
`----

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39375168,00.htm

Excluding the #1 competition? What is Microsoft still so afraid of?


Related:

Another Reason Microsoft's OSP Isn't Good Enough

,----[ Quote ]
| Eek. I understand that to be saying that there are gaps in OSP coverage. 
| You'll get documents you can't legally open unless you are using Microsoft's 
| software, because the extensions found in Office but not in OOXML proper, so 
| to speak, are not covered. Let me explain what I think they are saying this 
| means.    
| 
| We knew we'd get documents we couldn't open effectively from a technical 
| standpoint, without at least losing something in the translation. But if 
| extensions to the OOXML format, as exemplified in Microsoft Office 2007, are 
| not covered by the OSP, and evidently they are not, when you get a document 
| with, say, spreadsheet macros, or DRM, what legally protects you if open the 
| document? All Microsoft has to do, then, is extend the format, as it already 
| has, and you then can only interoperate with them if you use Microsoft 
| software too. So. OSP gaps. Nice work if you can get it.       
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080326151405938


OOXML IPR problems

,----[ Quote ]
| Anyway, the phrase that caught my eye last night in one of the presentations 
| I was sent was “No IPR problems!”. 
| 
| I immediately thought “That should have an asterisk.” As in:
| 
| “No IPR problems!*”
| 
| * If you don’t care about 1) everything you need to use the spec, or 2) are 
| interested in using free software. 
`----

http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=2128


Microsoft patents by Brian Jones

,----[ Quote ]
| For fun we just did a quick search of published US patent applications 
| with "Brian Jones" as an author, and "Microsoft" as the assignee. 
| 
| [...]
| 
| Some of these, like the packing ones, seem to apply directly to OOXML. What 
| isn't clear to us is why Microsoft would pursue patent protection for patents 
| rights that their are promising that they won't assert over users of OOXML.  
`----

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-35323/microsoft-patents-by-brian-jones


Wishful Spinning

,----[ Quote ]
| OOXML gets adopted. More and more projects are started. Let's see which of 
| these would survive without funding. Meanwhile a spin factory sends out 
| success stories that most bloggers find worthless to discuss. It is possible 
| to get the Krauts on board that are supposed to review OOXML but would OOXML 
| survive a review by the crowds?    
`----

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-35292/wishful-spinning


Digging in the Comments: Patents

,----[ Quote ]
| Patent licensing is probably the most important aspect for all third parties 
| that want to implement or use the Open XML specification. Unfortunately the 
| Ballot Resolution Meeting cannot discuss these aspects because only technical 
| and editorial issues would get resolved.   
| 
| [...]
| 
| When you have a patent which covers Open XML and you refuse to license it, 
| the standard process gets stalled. Large companies in the standardization 
| process are reluctant to use that nuke option. Given the ambush that the 
| software patent practice means today it is quite possible that Open XML 
| infringes a patent and all parties eventually have an obligation to license 
| it.     
`----

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-31491/digging-in-the-comments:patents


Patent threat looms large over OOXML

,----[ Quote ]
| "If OOXML goes through as an ISO standard, the IT industry, government and 
| business will encumbered with a 6000-page specification peppered with 
| potential patent liabilities" said NZOSS President Don Christie.  
| 
| "Patent threats have already been used to spread doubt amongst organisations 
| keen to take advantage of the benefits of open source. No one knows whether 
| such claims have any merit, but it is calculated to deter the development and 
| use of open and alternative toolsets."   
`----

http://nzoss.org.nz/node/179


Cyberlaw OOXML Seminar 14 December

,----[ Quote ]
| However, this raises the issue - what assurance does a developer have that 
| such a large specification is not the subject of third party patent claims?  
|       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| The pedigree of the specification is certainly no reason for hope, Microsoft 
| has been the target of third party patent claims for some time now including 
| some high profile losses in patent suits. The fact that the specification has 
| been developed behind closed doors and on a fast track means that there has 
| been no adequate opportunity to evaluate the likelihood of third party patent 
| claims against the specifications. The sheer size of the document suggests 
| there will be at least a couple hiding in there somewhere.       
`----

http://brendanscott.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/cyberlaw-ooxml-seminar-14-december/


ISO warned about possible patent violations of DIS29500 (aka OOXML)

,----[ Quote ]
| I have just send the following email to ISO members (you can find some of 
| their email addresses on the INCTIS website) to warn them about the possible  
| patent ambush... 
`----

http://jeremywang67.blogspot.com/2008/01/iso-warned-about-possible-patent.html


EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push

,----[ Quote ]
| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder, 
| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors.  When 
| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not 
| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but 
| statements promising to "cooperate fully."    
| 
| But at the same time, Microsoft is still a tough competitor.  As Microsoft's 
| Director of Corporate Standards Jason Matusow famously warned at his blog 
| last year:  
| 
|     Make no mistake; all parties are looking at the full picture to find 
|     strategies that will result in the outcome they desire. Provided - of 
|     course - that they do so within the context of the rules that apply to 
|     the process, this is exactly what one should expect to happen. It is 
|     going to be a very interesting next few months.    
| 
| Indeed, the months that followed proved to be interesting indeed.  Microsoft 
| said that some of its employees became over zealous, most flagrantly in 
| Sweden, where marketing assists were promised to several business partners as 
| incentives to join the national standards committee and vote for OOXM.   
`----

http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776


EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push

,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always 
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter 
| Quinn was by no means unique.  
`----

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252

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