On Wed, 2004-03-24 at 23:47 +0000, Alex Hudson wrote:
Second, they state "[If] any of this interface information [is Microsoft] intellectual property [..], Microsoft would be entitled to reasonable remuneration". So, MS' IP rights cannot stop them from publishing the document, we must renumerate them for their rights. Given the lack of rights in interfaces (in my opinion; see above :), I'm not sure the remuneration would amount to much.
Of course not. What they're forced to is to create a RAND licensing scheme for their IP. This is unacceptable for competing Free Software.
So, I don't really think it's a "pat on the back".
The _real_ competitor can't compete. So I disagree. Yes, I know you're for Free Software, I just think you're not getting that SAMBA, for instance, is impaired, specially in the case of software patents, which we hope to be able to put down, but are not certain.
Rui