On Sun, 30 Oct 2005, Daniel Carrera wrote:
[snip]
Microsoft is not claiming patents on any processes necessary to read or write
.doc files. They just keep the format closed, change it on every release, and
leave you to guess how it works.
[snip]
It was my understanding that the company has sw patents on XML
serialization, which is something needed for using *any* XML-based format.
It and other companies have some 3900+ sw patents (valid in the US) on
other XML/SGML related activities:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=0&f=S&l=50&TERM1=xml&FIELD1=&co1=OR&TERM2=sgml&FIELD2=&d=ptxt
I'm not up on the contents of sw patents, but their could just as easily
be obstacles to the old binary ".doc" formats as well.
Regardless of sw patents or not the DMCA / EUCD could be invoked to
prevent 'circumvention'. Dmitry Sklyarov was put in jail for
circumventing ROT13. Document schemas and compression algorithms are
considerable more complex.
I suspect what he was getting at was the question, " would third parties
be allowed to read MS formats in the future?"
-Lars
Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Software patents kill innovation and harm all Net-based business.
Keep them out of the EU by writing your MEP, keep the market open.
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