[Opensim-dev] [linux-elitists] Mono considered harmful

[Frisby, Adam]

Yeah, I did miss reasonable fees.

However, it is widely believed that the Novell/MS pact disclaims these. I would highly suggest bringing this one over to the Mono mailing list, they have a lot more experience dealing with these claims.

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: opensim-dev-bounces at lists.berlios.de [mailto:opensim-dev-
> bounces at lists.berlios.de] On Behalf Of Eugen Leitl
> Sent: Sunday, 5 April 2009 11:34 AM
> To: opensim-dev at lists.berlios.de
> Subject: Re: [Opensim-dev] [linux-elitists] Mono considered harmful
> 
> ----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----
> 
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2009 08:44:08 -0700
> To: linux-elitists at zgp.org
> Subject: Re: [linux-elitists] [Opensim-dev] Mono considered harmful
> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11+cvs20060403
> 
> Quoting Eugen Leitl (eugen at leitl.org):
> 
> > IANAL, does below explanation by Adam hold water?
> 
> You don't have to be a lawyer to know that it's rubbish on two separate
> grounds.
> 
> Yes, C# is an ECMA standard.  However:
> 
> (1) It doesn't follow that ECMA International has any power to "forbid"
> patent holders from suing anyone over anything, let alone patent
> infringement.  I mean, think about it:  Does Adam think ECMA
> International is Microsoft Corporation's daddy?  That it owns 51% of
> the
> issued and outstanding common stock?  At worst, it might be possible
> for
> ECMA International to be very deeply disappointed in Microsoft's
> behaviour at some future point, decertify particular things, and
> otherwise carry out mild actions that _are_ within its power.
> 
> More important:
> 
> (2) In any event, ECMA International does not even _profess_ to
> disapprove of suing patent infringers.  It merely has a "Code of
> Conduct
> in Patent Matters"
> (http://www.ecma-international.org/memento/codeofconduct.htm), setting
> ECMA policy that the group will approve standards only if it has
> written
> assurances from applicant that applicable patents will be licensed on a
> "reasonable, non-discriminatory basis".  (That term of art is typically
> referred to as RAND terms.)
> 
> Has Adam Frisby completely missed the last decade of standards warfare?
> The proprietary camp has repeatedly attempted to get the World Wide Web
> Consortium to start accepting "RAND" patent licensing, instead of
> requiring that applicants certify that covering patents will be
> _royalty-free_.  This arm-twisting failed, because of diligent
> focussing
> of attention from open source people.  W3C has stuck to its guns and
> insistend on royalty-free patent licensing.
> 
> To spell it out:  "Reasonable" means obligatory patent royalty
> payments.
> Which means no open source implementations of those standards.
> 
> And that is one reason why ECMA standards can be (and often are) issued
> on terms hostile to open source, whereas W3C standards are reliable and
> open-source-friendly.
> 
> Sheesh.
> 
> --
> Cheers,              Híggledy-pìggledy / XML programmers
> Rick Moen            Try to escape those / I-eighteen-N woes;
> rick at linuxmafia.com  Incontrovertibly / What we need more of is
> McQ!  (4x80)         Unicode weenies and / François Yergeaus.
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> ----- End forwarded message -----
> --
> Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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