From: "Faustus von Goethe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> <BEGIN REPOST>
> WOTC's current move is very similar to what Sun Microsystems did with
> the Java programming language.
That's absolute crap.
Sun patented and copyrighted the JAVA language and refused to release it
using an Open Source license like the GPL. Then, Sun licensed their patents
and copyrights to various companies for integration into the available
operating systems using a contract which forbade those companies to make
substantial changes to the basic Java system - including >additions< to the
Java standard.
Sun talked smack about submitting Java to an international standards group,
but at the end of the day they withdrew their submission because the
standards group refused to allow Sun unilateral control over what
consitituted the "Java Standard".
Java is universally held in low regard by the Open Source software community
as being an example of a concept that absolutely should have been made Free
Software but that is shackled by Sun and has been rendered nearly useless as
a market force.
Even today, with HP working on a clean-room implementation of Java that they
are not licensing from Sun, and the obvious failure of Java to capture and
hold any kind of marketshare on the application end, Sun >still< refuses to
release Java as Free Software.
This is not an issue about controlling a trademark - it is an issue about
controlling the source code; the heart and soul of the Free Software / Open
Source concept.
Compare these problems to the concept of Open Gaming, where the Open Gaming
License protects and binds its publishers to a completely open and
unrestricted ability to copy, modify and distribute materials either wholly
new or derived from previous works.
Material released using the Open Game License, Trademark License or no,
fulfills the letter and spirit of the Open Source Definition and embraces
fully and unreservedly the belief that game content should be freely copied,
modified and distributed.
Ryan
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For more information, please link to www.opengamingfoundation.org
