Hello,
I've heard, that there is a patent on stylesheets. Can you tell me more about that?
May HTML with CSS stylesheets be used in free software? Is that safe?
Hello Andreas, hello List,
On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 08:43:03PM +0100, Andreas K. Foerster wrote:
I've heard, that there is a patent on stylesheets. Can you tell me more about that?
AFAIK Microsoft has a patent on stylesheets.
May HTML with CSS stylesheets be used in free software?
Yes, MS permitts to use stylesheets for free.
Is that safe?
No, MS can decide every day to claim fees for using stylesheets.
On Monday 10 February 2003 21:05, Benedikt Wildenhain wrote:
On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 08:43:03PM +0100, Andreas K. Foerster wrote:
Is that safe?
No, MS can decide every day to claim fees for using stylesheets.
But HTML and CSS are W3C standards. I don't think MS is allowed to decide this.
Regards, Max Moritz Sievers
Hello,
On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 11:08:31PM +0100, Max Moritz Sievers wrote:
But HTML and CSS are W3C standards. I don't think MS is allowed to decide this.
Have a look at http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,17741,00.html. At the moment software-patents in Europe are not legalized yet, although around 30.000 were accepted. The article mentions prior-art which possibly will not exist in the new european patent law. Until now we still have a chance that these patents will not be legalized in Europe. For further information see: http://swpat.ffii.org/ (multilingual) or http://patinfo.ffii.org/ (German).
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,17741,00.html. At the moment software-patents in Europe are not legalized yet, although around 30.000 were accepted. The article mentions prior-art which possibly will not exist in the new european patent law. Until now we still have a chance that these patents will not be legalized in Europe. For further information see: http://swpat.ffii.org/ (multilingual) or http://patinfo.ffii.org/ (German).
I think that should be a priority for all free software users/developers now in Europe. Go write your country's Europarliament members now, and inform them about this.
Best regards,
Chema.
I agree we should all spend our time trying to stop this directive (which is both necessary and still possible if we try).
But I don't understand this:
El Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 10:49:36PM +0100, Benedikt Wildenhain deia:
were accepted. The article mentions prior-art which possibly will not exist in the new european patent law. Until now we still have a chance
I don't see how the new directive can change prior art (well, Elly Pooij van Gorsel MEP has proposed some minor change, but it is not yet voted, and I don't see how it relates to the subject).
On Mon, Feb 10, 2003 at 10:49:36PM +0100, Benedikt Wildenhain wrote:
At the moment software-patents in Europe are not legalized yet,
but the world wide web is world wide... So are we safe or not? (I mean THIS patent) Should stylesheets be avoided or not? (I'm writing a small tool, that creates HTML code with stylesheets)
I mean there was also a patent on code for GIF files and the FSF in America stopped using it and warned people. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html I'm wondering, if stylesheets is any different. The FSF in America doesn't use stylesheets, but they don't write anything about it...?
akf1@akfoerster.de writes:
The FSF in America doesn't use stylesheets, but they don't write anything about it...?
fsf.org does not use Stylesheets, but fsfeurope.org and savannah.gnu.org are examples for FSF (related) pages, which do use them.
moritz
El lun, 10-02-2003 a las 20:43, Andreas K. Foerster escribió:
Hello,
I've heard, that there is a patent on stylesheets. Can you tell me more about that?
May HTML with CSS stylesheets be used in free software? Is that safe?
Are you worried about a possible CSS patent. Have a look at this:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/12/200209&mode=nested&t...
Best regards,
Chema.
On Wed, Feb 12, 2003 at 10:26:13PM +0100, Chema Mateos wrote:
Are you worried about a possible CSS patent. Have a look at this:
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/02/12/200209&mode=nested&t...
Sorry, I couldn't find anything about CSS there. Or did you mean the article about NCR patents? That is something different.
But I really have trouble with surfing on that site, maybe I saw the wrong topics...