> Free of patents? ESRI has always been the "Microsoft of GIS", so beware > of patents on this particular format.
We should be specific in what we say. ESRI has not registered any patents (they might have inherited some from acquisitions) and they claim to have a company wide policy to never register a patent themselves. This is hard to verify but until someone produces proof I would strongly refrain from alleging anything. IBM is one of the real patent monsters and they already have developed into being a real PITA in several spatially related software packages. Otoh IBM is an Open Source promoter. Go figure. Google has transferred its copyright on KML to OGC. This does not make me trust Google any more or less but it makes me trust that I can use KML which is not a bad thing. ESRI was late and unloved in the OGC (check the history) and Shape was already deprecated technology when they joined. OGC did not have as much interest in Shape as it had in KML (new markets anyone?). Under other circumstances I am pretty sure ESRI might have released Shape to the OGC to make it an open standard. It could still be done - but what for? Shape is legacy and it is already as open and as we need it to be. Must I worry to take up the cudgels for ESRI now? -- With best regards, Arnulf Christl --------------------------------------- WhereGroup GmbH & Co. KG Siemensstraße 8 53121 Bonn Germany Fon: +49 (0)228 / 90 90 38 - 23 Fax: +49 (0)228 / 90 90 38 - 11 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.wheregroup.com Amtsgericht Bonn, HRA 6788 ------------------------------- Komplementärin: WhereGroup Verwaltungs GmbH vertreten durch: Arnulf Christl, Olaf Knopp, Peter Stamm --------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
