> Whether Microsoft has enforceable patent claims on Mono or not is > irrelevant to the mono mailing lists;
I'm an incipient Mono user and potential open source library contributor. The implementation is shaping up and the language is a modest improvement over Java. I think it's a valid question to ask whether anybody knows what these recent questions by Microsoft representatives mean and whether anybody knows more about them. > Are you volunteering to underwrite a lawyer's legal opinion on this? I'm not necessarily looking for a legal opinion. I'm reasonably convinced that there is nothing in ECMA C# that hasn't been done before, and I believe that one could probably prevail given enough money and time. But that's not really interesting as far as I'm concerned; if push comes to shove, Microsoft could do a lot of harm with lawsuits, even if they are frivolous and even if they shoot themselves in the foot in the process. I'm looking for any information about Microsoft's intentions. Marketing and legal staff often say stupid things, but there must be some policy on these issues inside Microsoft. ECMA requires explicit disclosures of related intellectual property by the submitter, as well as other members of the organization; does anybody on the list know what Microsoft's statement was? What are they telling ISO? Also, presumably, people have technical contacts at Microsoft; what do they say? Someone on the Mono list must know a bit more than what that interview says, and if they could share it, that would be nice. If this question really is inappropriate and the current Mono crowd just doesn't want to think about it, I apologize. But then the reality is that people really have to take that uncertainty into account when building on top of Mono. Tom PS: Question 116 in the FAQ doesn't really answer this question either. Among other things, while Mono might muddle through even if there are patents, it could kill other C# implementations. And the things Microsoft has patents on might be just the things that make C# more attractive than Java to me. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Mono-list maillist - [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-list
