Blurry licensing

Blurry licensing

Posted Jun 25, 2005 11:32 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091)
In reply to: Microsoft Puts Roadblock in Front of Open-Sourcing Avalon and Indigo (eWeek) by landley
Parent article: Microsoft Puts Roadblock in Front of Open-Sourcing Avalon and Indigo (eWeek)

What exactly is it they're demanding a license _for_?

Amazing, but that's how businesses often work. Quite often I have read news like "Company X licenses Technology T from Company Y", but I could not tell what they were exactly paying for.

Going through the body of the news article with a mental list similar to your excellent dissection of "Intellectual Property" would yield no results at all. No copyrights, no trademarks, no contracts (yet), no trade secrets, and often no (sensible) patents; so that left some unspecified "technology" claims. In my mind, Company X was just buying the right not to be sued, which is sad and disgusting. The outcome would be uncertain, but what is for sure is a big waste of money for both parties.

Well, I think that is what they are demanding a license for.

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