5 ms·

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is backing Oracle in this appeal, because apparently Microsoft thinks that copyright on APIs = good.

• dragonwriter 13y ago
  Perhaps, but it may be more narrow than that: Microsoft is backing Oracle because they think that any obstruction to Google momentum is good, and that copyright on APIs is either good, neutral, or bad but not bad enough to outweigh the benefit of the problems losing this case would cause Google in the short term.
• jmillikin 13y ago
  Of course they do. If APIs can be copyrighted, then projects like Wine and Mono become illegal.
  • micampe 13y ago
    Director of the open source technology centre at Microsoft Tom Hanrahan said the Community Promise allows projects like Mono to fully support its technology. “The type of action Oracle is taking against Google over Java is not going to happen,” Hanrahan said. Microsoft’s Community Promise has made the .Net runtime and C# specifications available to Miguel de Icaza and the Mono project developers. “If a .Net port to Android was through Mono it would fall under that agreement,” he said. http://www.techworld.com.au/article/358564/microsoft_won_t_stop_net_android/ http://www.techworld.com.au/article/358564/microsoft_won_t_s... More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_(software) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_(software)
    • jmillikin 13y ago
      Microsoft's "community promise" only covers APIs derived from the ECMA standards. It doesn't protect other APIs that Mono implements, such as ASP.NET.
      • micampe 13y ago
        It still wouldn’t make the entire project illegal, only things outside of the standard.
        • nitrogen 13y ago
          "Only things outside of the standard" includes many libraries necessary to allow cross-platform compatibility.
    • MichaelGG 13y ago
      Xamarin actually ported Android to C#: http://blog.xamarin.com/android-in-c-sharp/ http://blog.xamarin.com/android-in-c-sharp/ And has some cute benchmarks to show off for it. But go one more level deep: Despite Microsoft's Community Promise, many places and legal teams will still view a potential threat if MS has a copyright on APIs used in Mono (not to mention patents). It's a great win-win for Microsoft. They get to trumpet their PR and gain face with open source people, as well as deflect some criticism. But they know it'll still not hurt them as much as if they officially blessed Mono with a full, proper, transitive license.
      • micampe 13y ago
        Sorry, I’ve been trying to be less cynical lately. If someone does something good I prefer to take it, not dig for nefarious motives.
        • MichaelGG 13y ago
          That's probably a great life outlook to deal with individuals and probably helps your personal relationships. But it seems incredibly naive to give corporations the same treatment. Read the actual promise[1]. The promise only covers patent claims from Microsoft on those technologies, and only if you're not engaged in any patent lawsuit with them. So, if you're some random company that happens to encroach on Microsoft's territory in another area, but you happened to use Mono, they can strike at your usage of Mono due to your work in another area. Automotive? Health? Entertainment? "Social"? Telecommunications? Advertising? Resource planning? Imaging/mapping? Security? Aeronautics? Anything related to computing? All those and more are areas that Microsoft works on. I can't imagine any legal team being able to assert that their company will _never_ use Microsoft IP in any area - it's just too vast. Example: You use Mono to implement some coordination software for networking gear - that sounds "safe". Microsoft then publishes research and obtains patents on their own work on networking (already done) from Azure and MSR (or they buy some large dead company's portfolio). Microsoft now has IP all over your area of choice, and as soon as there's any fight, you lose your Promise over Mono and now have a ton more claims to defend. Oops. This isn't really even cynicism - it's spelled out very clearly in the promise. Edit: In the Google Android .NET issue: Yes, Google can go use .NET for Android, no problem. Until Google gets in a fight over a plethora of other patents (say, advertising or other phone related patents). At that point, Google loses its promise for Mono and MS has a lucrative ground to gain. Also, copyright issues are NOT included in the Community Promise. So MS still wins by making APIs copyrightable. They might extend the CP to cover copyright, but those copyright issues are still there as soon as someone fights MS over anything else. Totally strengthens MS's position. As far as .NET on Android - OF COURSE, MS won't "stop" that. That'd be a major win for MS and hurt Oracle/Java. The .NET port would fall under the agreement, but I've already demonstrated how quickly that agreement can roll back. Google adopting .NET is a good technical move, but gives MS a massive advantage. That said, app developers using MonoDroid are probably reasonably safe so long the apps they make are of relatively low strategic value to MS. If all of Google Play's apps were made on MonoDroid, Google would be in a terrible position. 1: http://www.microsoft.com/openspecifications/en/us/programs/community-promise/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/openspecifications/en/us/programs/c...
  • pron 13y ago
    Mono isn't nearly as big as Android. Wine certainly isn't much of a threat to Microsoft.
• deleted 13y ago
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