A well thought out argument however what you are saying is that it is possible to look at the contents of a.doc file and determine exactly what it does. Given that, you are assuming that they could do that without using a Microsoft product to do it. Seems pretty impossible.
I am only assuming about what the bnetd Co. did but more than likely they set up ethereal and stared at what happened during a game. I can't imagine they had any more access than that. And that is all you need... It would be the same as opening a word document and making something bold and seeing what comes out the other end. There's no real difference that I know of. And the same applies for GAIM
No I don't believe I am. bnetd did not steal or provide a method to steal anything. They provided an interoperable server.
That's what OpenOffice does. Microsoft's argument is this: They created the.doc format as a closed format so that they could ensure that people opening word documents were using their system. OpenOffice deliberately does not check that users have a valid Microsoft Word license, and in order to provide that service REVERSE-ENGINEERED *shiver* a private format. Sound familiar?
Let's look at the ramifications of this ruling to some of the most popular OSS.
OpenOffice: Interoperability with Microsoft product by... reverse engineering
GAIM: interoperability with Microsoft/Yahoo/AOL product by... reverse engineering
Two huge players that could never be produced if this ruling is upheld. Anyone else scared?
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A well thought out argument however what you are saying is that it is possible to look at the contents of a .doc file and determine exactly what it does. Given that, you are assuming that they could do that without using a Microsoft product to do it. Seems pretty impossible.
I am only assuming about what the bnetd Co. did but more than likely they set up ethereal and stared at what happened during a game. I can't imagine they had any more access than that. And that is all you need... It would be the same as opening a word document and making something bold and seeing what comes out the other end. There's no real difference that I know of. And the same applies for GAIM
No I don't believe I am. bnetd did not steal or provide a method to steal anything. They provided an interoperable server.
.doc format as a closed format so that they could ensure that people opening word documents were using their system. OpenOffice deliberately does not check that users have a valid Microsoft Word license, and in order to provide that service REVERSE-ENGINEERED *shiver* a private format. Sound familiar?
That's what OpenOffice does. Microsoft's argument is this: They created the
Let's look at the ramifications of this ruling to some of the most popular OSS. OpenOffice: Interoperability with Microsoft product by... reverse engineering GAIM: interoperability with Microsoft/Yahoo/AOL product by... reverse engineering Two huge players that could never be produced if this ruling is upheld. Anyone else scared?