Massachusetts Explains Legal Concerns for Open Documents

Tontoman writes "ZDNet is running a story that sheds new light on the decision by Massachusetts to switch to open formats for the commonwealth's official documents. This issue has previously been discussed on Slashdot, first The Massachusetts Office Party and then Microsoft Lashes out at Massachusetts IT Decision . From the article: 'Eric Kriss, Secretary of Administration & Finance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, told CRN on Friday that Massachusetts had concerns about the openness of Microsoft XML schemas as well as with potential patent issues that could arise in the future.' The article also quotes a Microsoft executive on further reason that Microsoft's upcoming Office 12 will not support OpenDocument."

Comments

Anti-Trust?!?!

[infocrucible]

This is what happens when you elect a government that would rather lie down with big business and creep toward facism rather than support democracy. This is a far more effective anti-trust arguement than the browser wars, but thanks to the current "fiddle-while-Rome-burns" president, this will never happen.
Captialism is the greatest economic force the world has known, but corporatism was exactly what led to Nazi Germany. I'm not trying to sound too alarmist here, but can anyone argue after seeing the events of the last week that the US is losing it's grip on democracy? Please view the documentary "The Corporation" for further background.
Let's get back to democracy and free enterprise and the values that America was founded to protect. Microsoft deserves to be put out of business over this refusal. Inferior format may ass. The are looking for revenue lock-in at the expense of democracy.

MA Politics

[Fear the Clam]

No doubt this move The Way Things Have Always Been (TM) will be rallied against by our blockhead of a governor, Mitt Romney, as to do otherwise might hurt his chances to become the next Republican president.

Re:Who Should Control Your Information?

[eno2001]

Oh dear. Here we go again. Some libertarian/hippy who needs a bath and a job voices his outmodded opinions on Slashdot thinking that someone cares. Here's a clue: NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK. The fact is that MS Office documents are superior because a lot of us live in the 21st century (I'd argue I should have been born in the 22nd century because a lot of today's technology is stuff I dreamt up in second grade back in the 70s).

Microsoft has designed formats that are luxuriously designed. They are made to hold a wealth of information and integrate into each other in such intricate ways that Gaudi would weep. But you backwards looking lunix users want to hold the rest of the world back because you can't keep up with today's technology.

I'm sorry, but today's typical e-mail servers should be able to easily accommodate quarter gig messages. This is the 21st century and data is rich. If a user can embed video in an Outlook document, a Word document, a Spreadsheet or what have you, they should be able to and it shouldn't be treated as odd or bad.

The digital rights management in MS documents is also the perfect way for governments to protect their intellectual property. The so-called whistle blowers you seem to fellate are TREASONOUS BASTARDS. They should be working to support what their government is doing and instead they're playing double agent games. If I found one in my supervision, I'd have him fired on the spot and then arrested under some kind of Homeland Security charge. I'm sure there's a provision for treason like leaking documents in there somewhere.

So hippy, why don't you get a haircut a shave and a bath, then go look for a job down at your local McDonald's or Walmart. You can then do what every good American does and work your way up from the mail room. That's what my grandfather did and that's why I'm an executive today.