Well said.
"Covered Code" only covers what you get from Microsoft. It doesn't apply to,
say, independent implementations - only to that which you get from Microsoft
(reference ""Covered Code" means those Microsoft .NET libraries and runtime
components as made available by Microsoft at..." and not even modifications
of that code you get from them. "Oh, it's been modified - You no longer get
the patent promise" (reference "that are infringed only as a consequence of
modification of Covered Code"). "Oh, it's been added into Mono - you no
longer get the patent promise (reference "...infringed only by the
combination of Covered Code with third party code.")
Then, "currently own by Microsoft" the patent document says. Microsoft sells
patents (which they have done - look it up) and guess what? It's not owned by
Microsoft anymore. The whole deal's out the window.
It also only applies to "compliant implementation" - They could come & say
"Oh, I'm sorry - Your implementation isn't 'compliant' for this, that and the
other reason which was a requirement to get the promise not to sue." Or maybe
"Oh, the source code has this bug which renders it less than 100% 'compliant'
with the spec, so they don't get the promise." And then #B in the .NET
Runtime section only applies to additional stuff they've published. All they
need to do is not publish some part of the API. People might try to include
it anyway. Try to include a non-documented API? (Because surely Microsoft
documents absolutely everything about the API on its MSDN website, right?)
You don't get the patent promise.
In short, patents are still a problem. They can still sue anyone that they
want to even over some small technicality. The FSF's guidance that "we should
discourage people from writing programs in C#" still holds. Nothing of that
has changed. Microsoft could do a better job with their patent license to
address the free software movement's concerns but they haven't because they
don't really want to.
Don't forget that this is still the company we're dealing with starting from
his description 19 seconds in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YExl9ojclo&t=0m19s
