Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SyncML 1.0 released; MAL Is Dead.

Posted by Hemos on from the sync-dong-the-witch-is-dead dept.

A reader Coward writes: "Finally, there's a standard for sync. SyncML 1.0 was just released. Which also means MAL is pretty much history." Yeah, getting Motorola, Nokia, Ericcson, Palm and about 600 other companies is probably a good move. If it means I can beam sync calender/number information from my Palm to my phone, I'll be a happy man.

1 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Re:it's about time! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5

    At first glance, this looks great. However, having downloaded the specification, I am somewhat troubled by this bit of legalese:

    <snip>
    Copyright Notice
    Copyright (c) Ericsson, IBM, Lotus, Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., LTD,
    Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Inc., Psion, Starfish Software (2000).
    All Rights Reserved.
    Implementation of all or part of any Specification may require licenses under third party
    intellectual property rights, including without limitation, patent rights (such a third party may
    or may not be a Supporter). The Sponsors of the Specification are not responsible and shall
    not be held responsible in any manner for identifying or failing to identify any or all such
    third party intellectual property rights.
    </snip>

    What's this? The sponsors of the specification "may" have various patents and copyrights making it impossible (or illegal, which isn't the same of course) to implement the specification without paying them money? And they don't even have to tell us about them (until it's too late)?! And I hoped this was going to be an open standard...

    Will this present a major hurdle for Linux developers trying to implement the standard so we can use our PDAs and such with a Linux box? I think it looks pretty likely.