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Microsoft Won't Assert Web Services Patents
Andy Updegrove writes, "Microsoft has just posted the text of a new promise not to assert its patents with respect to 35 listed Web Services standards. The promise is similar to the covenant not to assert patents that it issued last year with respect to its Office 2003 XML Reference Schema, with two important improvements intended to make it more clearly compatible with open source licensing. Those changes are to add an explicit promise not to assert any relevant patents against anyone in the distribution chain of a product, from the original vendor through to the end user; and to clarify that the promise covers a partial as well as a full implementation of a standard. It's all part of a recent wave of such pledges made by companies such as IBM, Nokia, and Oracle, and a significant shift in how Microsoft is dealing with open standards."
Itsatrap
The banner is not red.
You have the killer eye fungus.
You are bleeding into your eye.
Soon it will eat your brain.
Beware of Sales Reps bearing gifts.
I read your post as
Billy: Come over here.
Me: No! You'll hit me!
Billy: No I won't.
Me: Yes you will.
Billy: No I won't, I promise.
Me: Uh, okay.
Billy: (PUNCH!) Sucker!
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Anybody up for some hardcore skiing? I hear there's record snowfall in Hell right now!