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Microsoft Offers to License the Internet

Posted by michael on from the low-low-price-of-$29.95 dept.

NW writes "According to an eWeek story Microsoft is beginning to assert IP rights over 130 protocols including many basic Internet protocols including TCP/IP, DNS, etc. The story originates with a mailing list post to the IETF's IPR list."

3 of 463 comments (clear)

  1. Intellectual Property Strikes Again! by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And I thought the purpose of intellectual property was to encourage innovation. With talented people now forced to investigate potential issues, I can't see how IP does anything but slow progress. Time for revision?

    --
    Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
  2. Re:FUD by Dashing+Leech · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Nothing to see here at all.

    Except that we don't need a license to use them, and by signing up to the license we are locked into something.

    This looks very much like someone saying "Sign my free license and you will be able to use your own bank cards", which you can do now, but the license says you can only use money obtained through the bank card to buy Microsoft products. Why would anyone take that license?

    This sounds very much like a bad scam. It's not clear what the purpose of it is or why Microsoft is doing this. It doesn't appear to give you anything you don't already have. (And yes, I RTFA.)

  3. Re:FUD by SilentChris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    RTFL (read the f'ing license). There's no "signup", no "legal binding". I don't think they even expect anyone to request this license.

    Methinks this was just a way of classification within Microsoft. Someone in management asked "What kind of license do we give out for the public domain stuff we use?" (because EVERYTHING at MS is license; if you use the bathroom, you're licensed to do so). The lawyers looked, saw that they didn't own any of it, and put together a faux "license" that basically says "We don't own any of it, even though it's in our product."

    If you read through the license, it basically exercises no legal rights at all. It's a pointer, in essense, to the public domain. If this was ever brought up in a court, the opponents could basically point to the thing and say "MS, you absolved all potential 'rights' with this 'license'." If nothing else, this "license" is a good thing, because MS is basically backing off with it's hands in the air.