Pour info
-----Forwarded Message-----
Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2004 23:05:59 +0200
Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said that it is looking for ways to work more closely with developers of the Open Office open source project, while at the same time, apparently reserving the right to sue them, according to a legal agreement between Microsoft and Open Office's major sponsor, Sun Microsystems Inc., made public this week.
The agreement in question was signed in April of this year as part of Sun and Microsoft's landmark multibillion dollar settlement. It was released as part of Sun's annual U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) filings Monday.
The April agreement says that Microsoft can seek damages from Open Office users or distributors for any copy of Open Office installed after April 1, 2004. However, users of Sun's commercial distribution of Open Office, called StarOffice are protected from legal liabilities under the agreement, said Russ Castronovo, a spokesman for Sun.
Open Office includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software based on technology Sun acquired in its 1999 purchase of Germany's Star Division Corp. Sun released the code under an open-source license in 2000.
While the agreement effectively safeguards a large group of Open Office users from Microsoft, it leaves new users vulnerable to potential legal action, said Richard Donovan, head of the antitrust practice at Kelley Drye and Warren LLP in New York City, who has followed the agreement. "From now on, you're on notice that if you're still putting Open Office out there, Microsoft is reserving the right to go after you," he said.
The fact that Sun has granted Microsoft the right to seek damages for Open Office after the April 1 date may indicate a weakening in Sun's support for the open source project, Donovan said. Agreeing to the clause would "only make sense if Sun had decided as a corporate strategy that they did not intend to pursue Open Office very vigorously afterwards," he said.
Sun's Castronovo disagreed with Donovan's assessment, saying that Sun's support for Open Office was "as strong as ever" and adding that Microsoft has always had the right to sue Open Office users. "That existed before, so nothing changed in that respect, he said. "Open source software is typically provided without warranty and liability coverage. Open Office is no different."
Open Office developers were somewhat confused by the "legalese" language in the clause, said Louis Suárez-Potts, a senior community development manager with CollabNet Inc., who works on the Open Office project. But Sun's level of support for the project has not changed since the April announcement, he said. "I don't see this special chumminess (between Sun and Microsoft) as affecting our work," he said.
But one open source advocate was troubled by the clause.
"It's ominous, because it means that Microsoft is holding open their right to sue end users of Open Office for patent infringement. And Sun is protecting itself by exempting StarOffice from exposure," said Pamela Jones, editor of the Groklaw.net Web site, which covers legal issues relating to Linux (news - web sites) and open source software.
"It raises questions about Sun's motives in agreeing to such a deal, but it really shines the spotlight on what Microsoft thought was important to exempt from the Sun-Microsoft patent truce," she wrote in an e-mail interview.
The contract clause may have been necessary because of Sun's intimate relationship with the Open Office project, analysts say. Sun engineers are the major contributors to Open Office and the Santa Clara, California, company retains the copyright to all software that is contributed to the project.
Because of this tight relationship, Microsoft may have felt it necessary to remove any ambiguity about whether or not Open Office users are indemnified by the Sun-Microsoft agreement, said Matt Rosoff, analyst with Directions on Microsoft Inc. "They wanted to make it clear that ... just because Sun and Microsoft have a cross-licensing agreement, that doesn't mean that Sun has the right to turn that indemnification over to an open source organization," he said.
Ironically, the contract clause has come to light just as Microsoft is beginning to make overtures toward the Open Office development community. Microsoft's German subsidiary, Microsoft Germany GmbH, plans to exhibit at the Open Office Conference 2004 being held in Berlin next week.
Though Microsoft offers XML (Extensible Markup Language) support with its Microsoft Office 2003 productivity software, the company has been criticized by Open Office developers for its refusal to participate in an OASIS-led (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) effort to develop a standard file format for productivity applications.
Microsoft decided to participate in the conference to learn about Open Office and "take an active part in the dialogue and to discuss important topics related to open standards," said Sandra Schwan, a Microsoft spokeswoman, via e-mail. "This conference is not about selling products," she said.
The Open Office Conference 2004 charges exhibitors 500 (US$613) to participate in the conference. It attracted 300 attendees during its inaugural event last year.
Microsoft declined to comment on specifics of its April agreement with Sun.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/mc/20040916/tc_mc/sunmicros…
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Serge Marelli, Luxembourg
E-mail : serge.marelli(a)lilux.lu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
LiLux - http://www.lilux.lu/
Defending Innovation against Patent Inflation http://swpat.ffii.org/
Free Software Foundation - http//www.fsf.org/
heu...
sans commentaires, mais riez mes frères
-----Forwarded Message-----
En me promenant par curiosité sur le site de ces tristement célèbres
illuminés, je suis tombé sur cette brève assez drôle avec un peu de recul....
http://www.rael.org/int/press_site/french/pages/press_releases/270704.html
Voilà qui devrait au moins convaincre les libristes de pas aller voir les
raeliens :-)
@+
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Serge Marelli, Luxembourg
E-mail : serge.marelli(a)lilux.lu
----------------------------------------------------------------------
LiLux - http://www.lilux.lu/
Defending Innovation against Patent Inflation http://swpat.ffii.org/
Free Software Foundation - http//www.fsf.org/
Hi,
sorry for the HTML or whatever Lotus Notes makes out of this.
Greets Eric
----- Forwarded by Eric Dondelinger/SANTEC/TUDOR on 09/14/2004 03:10 PM
-----
Claire Merche/CITI/TUDOR
09/14/2004 01:14 PM
Please respond to
Claire Merche
To
eric.dondelinger(a)tudor.lu
cc
Subject
Invitation Rencontre: « Software Patents: Danger or Opportunity? » le 27
septembre 04 dès 17h30 au Centre de Recherche Henri Tudor
Le Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor a le plaisir de vous inviter à
la :
Rencontre " Software Patents Danger or Opportunity "
le 27 septembre 2004 dès 18h00
au CRP Henri Tudor | 29, avenue John F. Kennedy | Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Par la présente, le Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor, en
collaboration avec la Faculté des Sciences, de la Technologie et de la
Communication, de
l’Université du Luxembourg et LiLux (GNU/Linux User Group Luxembourg), a
le plaisir de vous inviter à la rencontre « Software Patents: Danger or
Opportunity? » dédiée aux brevets logiciels. Interviendra lors de cette
rencontre, Monsieur Richard M. Stallman, fondateur de projet GNU et
référence mondiale en matière de brevets logiciels.
Programme
17h30 Accueil
18h00 " Protection of Innovations with Regard to Software " par
Pierre Kihn, Partner Office Ernest Freylinger, European Patent and
Trademark Attorney
18h30 " The Danger of Software Patents " par Richard M. Stallman
19h30 Discussion
20h00 Drink de clôture
Informations pratiques
Langue de travail : Anglais
Date & Horaire : le 27/09/2004 dès 17h30
Lieu : CRP Henri Tudor | 29, avenue John F. Kennedy |
Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Prix : Gratuit
Commentaires : Des informations complémentaires sur la rencontre,
ainsi qu'une note biographique sur chaque intervenant, sont disponibles
sur le site web: www.linuxdays.lu.
Inscription : via le site web : www.linuxdays.lu
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
The September meeting will be held in the LGL next Thursday (23/09) at 20:00.
See you there.
- --
Thierry Coutelier Président LiLux asbl
7, Rue Jacques Sturm L-2556 Luxembourg
Office:+352 710725 608 Home:+352 406776
http://www.linux.lu/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iD8DBQFBSar3POfrcNNQX7oRAgXPAJ9K+hyROQQHwPF3YQNe7H8VqJyH3ACffVym
CvEjacU/YI9n+dv7E46IGlI=
=msbi
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hi,
I was very surprised to learn that Skype (VoIP software) is at
home in Luxembourg.
If you check http://www.skype.com/company.html , you'll find
that "The Skype Group is headquartered in Luxembourg with offices
also in London and soon in Tallinn."
Might be interesting if you play around with VoIP...
Greets Eric
At Tuesday, 14 September 2004, you wrote:
>From the looks of it, it also seems that the lux. headquarters
>aren't much more than a drop-box (job offers are for Tallinn
>and London only). Kind of like AOL, MS, Apple iTunes Europe
>probably.
yep... and you can't even find them on www.allo.lu :-(
greetings
Jang
----------------------------------------------------------
There are only 10 types of people in the world:
Those who understand binary and those who don't.
----------------------------------------------------------
===================================================================
EASY and FREE access to your email anywhere: http://www.web.lu/web2mail/
===================================================================
Hello people,
I was having a small think about Signing/Crypting Mails.
To propagate the thought of protecting your privacy how much of a sense
would this scenario make:
My mum has an e-mail address and I want to make sure it's REALLY her and
when she mails me her super secret recipes that none else can read it.
Therefor I generate a PGP key for her but with no password or (if
possible) I store the passphrase in the password manager.
Advantage even if someone will intercept my message it is still crypted
and I know it's my mum!
If it's a Single User PC wouldn't it make sense?
If it's multiuser and "basic" login password protection is present and
the right permissions are on the key wouldn't it make sense?
Thoughts?
Cheers,
Steve Clement
Better living through Mum's Crypted Recipes!
--
ION Network Solutions
Steve Clement
Unix System Administrator
209, rue des Romains
L-8041 Bertrange
Tel: +352 261 276-2
Fax: +352 261 276-9
mailto:steve@ion.lu
http://www.ion.lu