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RAND !== F/OSS compatible

Posted Feb 21, 2008 21:07 UTC (Thu) by roc (subscriber, #30627)
In reply to: RAND !== F/OSS compatible by drag
Parent article: Microsoft announces changes to promote interoperability

It may not be easy to code around Microsoft's patents when they are determining the protocols,
and hence the detailed functionality, that your software must implement.

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Posted Feb 21, 2008 23:54 UTC (Thu) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]

Samba has done that. So you have precedence. At least thats what they are saying they are
doing and that most Microsoft patents are not that good.

Of course for patents for protocols that you can't code around you'll have to setup some sort
of proxy, translator, emulation, or plugin system that is under a compatible license that can
be a buffer between OSS and Microsoft's patents.

RAND !== F/OSS compatible

Posted Feb 22, 2008 6:21 UTC (Fri) by ikm (subscriber, #493) [Link]

It feels that 'patents that cover protocols' are supposed to cover the protocols themselves,
and as such, it should be impossible to work around them without deviating from the protocols
by definition. An example of such a patent would probably show the real deal here.