5 ms·

Didn't MS pledge not to use their patents offensively? EDIT: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/osspatentpledge.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/interop/

by spot 16y ago

Didn't MS pledge not to use their patents offensively? EDIT: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/osspatentpledge.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/osspatentpledge....

rbanffy 16y ago
Did anyone trust their word? Seriously, Ballmer must do something for his bonus. Since selling desirable products is not their forte, patent trolling seems a nice business model. Expect more of this. Oh, and, BTW, Motorola was selling some WinMo 6 devices, at least here in Brazil.
radley 16y ago
They'll only sue you if you try to make money of it: "If You engage in the commercial distribution or importation of software derived from an open source project or if You make or use such software outside the scope of creating such software code, You do not benefit from this promise for such distribution or for these other activities... Software is deemed to be commercially distributed within the meaning of this promise when the distributor derives revenues in connection with the distribution, such as from subscriptions, updates, or user-based connection fees or from services that are contractually required for a customer to obtain the current version and/or updates of the software product in question."
- spot 16y ago
  Oh so the pledge was always worthless. You are right.
- bad_user 16y ago
  Open-source means non-commercial now?
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    The never said that open source means non-commercial. They said that above and beyond being open source this promise only applies to these situations.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  > Software is deemed to be commercially distributed But doesn't the software come free with the phones?
talvisota 16y ago
That's not too accurately summarized. In the linked text they promise to not sue individuals participating noncommercial open source development related to certain covered techologies, which are protocols, languages, file formats and standards. A huge amount of stuff, both technologies and contexts, is left outside the pledge. Thanks for linking, though; I never bothered to familiarize myself with this before.
tzs 16y ago
Which specific Covered Specifications do you think are involved in this suit? The pledge you cite (which is legally binding, BTW) is for people implementing specific specifications that Microsoft has listed under specific circumstances.

by spot 16y ago

Didn't MS pledge not to use their patents offensively? EDIT: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/osspatentpledge.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/osspatentpledge....

rbanffy 16y ago

Did anyone trust their word? Seriously, Ballmer must do something for his bonus. Since selling desirable products is not their forte, patent trolling seems a nice business model. Expect more of this. Oh, and, BTW, Motorola was selling some WinMo 6 devices, at least here in Brazil.

radley 16y ago

They'll only sue you if you try to make money of it: "If You engage in the commercial distribution or importation of software derived from an open source project or if You make or use such software outside the scope of creating such software code, You do not benefit from this promise for such distribution or for these other activities... Software is deemed to be commercially distributed within the meaning of this promise when the distributor derives revenues in connection with the distribution, such as from subscriptions, updates, or user-based connection fees or from services that are contractually required for a customer to obtain the current version and/or updates of the software product in question."

spot 16y ago
Oh so the pledge was always worthless. You are right.
bad_user 16y ago
Open-source means non-commercial now?
- kenjackson 16y ago
  The never said that open source means non-commercial. They said that above and beyond being open source this promise only applies to these situations.
rbanffy 16y ago
> Software is deemed to be commercially distributed But doesn't the software come free with the phones?

talvisota 16y ago

That's not too accurately summarized. In the linked text they promise to not sue individuals participating noncommercial open source development related to certain covered techologies, which are protocols, languages, file formats and standards. A huge amount of stuff, both technologies and contexts, is left outside the pledge. Thanks for linking, though; I never bothered to familiarize myself with this before.

tzs 16y ago

Which specific Covered Specifications do you think are involved in this suit? The pledge you cite (which is legally binding, BTW) is for people implementing specific specifications that Microsoft has listed under specific circumstances.