MESSAGE
| DATE | 2007-12-23 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] ms-EU Anti-Trust results
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The First Chink In Microsoft's Linux Patent Armor
Posted by Serdar Yegulalp, Dec 21, 2007 09:34 AM spacer » E-Mail »
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And so Microsoft has finally agreed to give the Samba Team the protocol
information it needs to allow systems that use Samba to interoperate
as completely as possible with Windows Server machines. Based on the
information Groklaw has provided about the agreement, it looks like
this might be the first of many solutions to Microsoft's cagey Linux
patent talk.
Most of us are by now familiar with Microsoft's secretive Linux
patent strategy. This agreement is a break from that pattern: instead
of setting up something behind closed doors, it's being done out in the
open (or at least as far out in the open as possible). Also, instead of
it being about a third party licensing specific patents from Microsoft,
it's about Microsoft providing information about patents they hold so
that other people can avoid violating them in the first place.
One of the results of this whole action has been the formation of a group
called the Protocol Freedom Information Foundation, set up specifically
to allow open access to documentation of proprietary protocols. It sounds
like Samba's work will simply be the first of many such things the PFIF
will get documentation on -- again, if not to actually license for use,
then to document in enough detail that the open-source community can
simply declare off-limits any potentially offending code.
All this did come at a bit of a cost. Not just the one-time licensing
payment of 10,000 euros to Microsoft, but the fact that protocol
documentation itself has to be held in confidence by the PFIF Samba Team
engineers. If someone in the open-source community wants direct access
to the documentation, they essentially have to become subcontractors of
the PFIF.
That said, Microsoft is obliged to keep the PFIF in the loop as to any
changes to said protocols on their part, and -- most importantly --
the relevant patent numbers are spelled out in public, which makes it
that much easier to avoid using them. They are not secrets anymore.
Andrew Tridgell of the Samba Team wrote his own analysis of the agreement,
as well as a separate description of the history behind it:
We weren't able to change the fundamentals of the agreement, so
we still didn't have a complete solution to the patent problem,
but we did find a way to put quite a strong boundary around which
patents we needed to avoid. We also couldn't change the fact that
the protocol documentation would need to remain confidential -
the decision by the commission did not force Microsoft to publicly
document their protocols, which is of course what we would have
preferred, only that Microsoft must license the documentation under
reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. Despite these limitations,
we were able to make a great deal of progress.
This is a first step, and a significant one. It's a strong sign that
Microsoft's patent claims can be put to rest in time, with as little
information as possible still held in secret, and not exclusively on
Microsoft's own terms. It's also telling that all this was only able
to happen after substantial legal pressure and negotiation. Me, I'd
like to think Microsoft would take the hint and continue to offer more
in this vein on their own, without waiting for others to come to them.
-- http://www.mrbrklyn.com - Interesting Stuff http://www.nylxs.com -
Leadership Development in Free Software
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://fairuse.nylxs.com DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
"Yeah - I write Free Software...so SUE ME"
"The tremendous problem we face is that we are becoming sharecroppers to our own cultural heritage -- we need the ability to participate in our own society."
"> I'm an engineer. I choose the best tool for the job, politics be damned.<
You must be a stupid engineer then, because politcs and technology have been attached at the hip since the 1st dynasty in Ancient Egypt. I guess you missed that one."
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