Pseudo-Patent-Free Microsoft Standard

[Seth Johnson <seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org>]

(Microsoft just can't cope with the idea that standards are
supposed to be used by everyone.  So they are hooking up
their patents via their license.  We simply can't turn our
back on them for one second.  -- Seth Johnson)


http://www.advogato.org/article/453.html

Various pieces of the article, paraphrased:

Microsoft requires companies not to distribute their
implementations of the CIFS specification "in any manner
that would subject such Company Implementation to the terms
of an IPR Impairing License."  "IPR Impairing License"
includes the GPL.

The license requires:

3.3 IPR Impairing License Restrictions. For reasons,
including without limitation, because (i) Company does not
have the right to sublicense its rights to the Necessary
Claims and (ii) Company's license rights hereunder to
Microsoft's intellectual property are limited in scope,
Company shall not distribute any Company Implementation in
any manner that would subject such Company Implementation to
the terms of an IPR Impairing License.

and defines:

1.6 "Necessary Claims" shall mean those claims of a patent
or patent application, including without limitation, United
States Patents Nos. 5,265,261 and 5,437,013, which (a) are
owned, controlled or sublicenseable by Microsoft without
payment of a fee to an unaffiliated third party; and (b) are
necessarily infringed by implementing the CIFS communication
protocol as set forth in the Technical Reference, wherein a
claim is  necessarily infringed only when there are no
technically reasonable  alternatives to such infringement.

and, for good measure:

1.4 "IPR Impairing License" shall mean the GNU General
Public License, the  GNU Lesser/Library General Public
License, and any license that requires in any instance that
other software distributed with software subject to such
license (a) be disclosed and distributed in source code
form; (b) be licensed for purposes of making derivative
works; or (c) be redistributable at no charge.

C-FIT Content Control Outreach Discussion List
List Parent: seth.johnson@RealMeasures.dyndns.org
C-FIT Home:  http://RealMeasures.dyndns.org/C-FIT

To Subscribe/Unsubscribe:
------------------------------------------------------------
Send "[Un]Subscribe C-FIT_Release_Community" To
Listserv@RealMeasures.dyndns.org