Re: [Patents] MS Office 2003 XML patented

[Carsten Svaneborg <zqex@mpipks-dresden.mpg.de>]

On Monday 17 November 2003 13:48, Carsten Svaneborg wrote:
> so in other words Microsoft is using patents to prevent GPLed programs
> from accessing the XML format that MS Word will be using.

FSF eases Microsoft schema patent fears
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 18/11/2003 at 09:40 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/34045.html


"I don't think the alarm is justified," the FSF's pro bono counsel
Eben Moglen told us last night. "This is not a license that I would like
to accept; Microsoft is saying we might have some patents. But it's not
a problem if Microsoft is making it available to everyone to make use
and sell.

Moglen says that Microsoft's schema license conforms to the compromise
that he worked out with community leader Bruce Perens when revising the
World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) proposed RAND license. Two years
ago the W3C proposed to allow, in parallel to the web's tradition of
royalty-free licenses which saw a developers revolt. 

-- 
  Mvh. Carsten Svaneborg