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Microsoft's European License Dissected

Posted by timothy on from the in-the-name-of-science dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet has published a step-by-step explanation of Microsoft's proposed server interoperability license, which was just rejected by the European Commission. The EC said the license excluded open-source vendors and charged unjustifiably high royalty fees -- all bad for business."

4 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. I like this: by FoboldFKY · · Score: 5, Funny
    The licenses granted in Section 2.1(a) do not include any license right, power or other authority to subject Licensed Server Implementations or derivative works thereof in whole or in part to any of the terms of any other license that requires such Licensed Server Implementations or derivative works thereof to be disclosed or distributed in source code form.
    That's all one sentence... I guess MS wanted the OSS guys to suffocate just by reading the license. A truly insidious plan...
    --
    We're geeks... We're the sorcerers of the modern-day world. --
  2. Re:Here is a question by Godwin+O'Hitler · · Score: 5, Funny

    I could explain why they are a monopoly but I'd rather use this opportunity to ridicule you for using the word boxen.

    --
    No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
  3. Re:Amazing by Dr_Barnowl · · Score: 4, Funny
    Burger King employees don't speak a different language. You don't need to buy a phrase book to have a hope of ordering a Whopper and Fries. The same is also true in McDonalds, Wendys and many other smaller burger establishments.

    Now imagine that instead of a phrasebook, you had to buy a universal translator. And the only people that made them was the burger vendors ; the translator is expensive enough that you'd really only want to buy one. And they don't work as well in the other big chains, and forget using it at Honest Als Burger Shack. And Pizza Hut? Ahahaha.

    You're pretty much gonna have to eat Whoppers. The language of burger flippers is complicated, some say deliberately so, and people have a hard time deciphering it. Now, some of the other establishments produce translators that work on BurgerKing-ese. But they're not perfect (although in some cases their grammar is technically better). It would be so much easier if they had access to a proper BK dictionary.

    But BK don't want that. They want people to keep buying Whoppers, and avoid the other chains because they speak a "funny" language (some of them don't even have pretty menus!) Now some politos are pestering them. They don't want them to give away the secret recipe (although it's not really a secret anymore, and there are a lot of people who say that the other chains have better sandwiches, or even prefer grilling their own). They don't have to give away the secret recipe ; they just have to make it easier for people to order burgers.

    I guess Microsoft are a bit like Burger King ; they do want us to keep buying Whoppers....

  4. Re:Two lines.... by chrish · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey, that's nearly a haiku. How about:

    Can we trust them now?
    Business as usual.
    This is Microsoft.

    --
    - chrish