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Microsoft Eases Licensing On Office 2003 Formats

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the opening-up dept.

kfiller writes "Microsoft has negotiated a deal with the state of Massachusetts to lower licensing restrictions on the Excel and Word XML formats in Office 2003, in exchange for the state to reconsider their focus on adopting 'open standards' to adopting 'open formats'. Is this just another move to encroach on the open source community?"

2 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. The old MicroSoft Adage (tm) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Extend and embrace. (tm)

  2. This could be good if it's a trend by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    PJ at groklaw has a good read on this at
    http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200501141 8070774.
    The devil is in the licensing details, but maybe Microsoft has [decided|been forced] to play nice in order to not be excluded.