On Wed, 26 May 2004, Ryan Malayter wrote:
What does your OS choice have to do with anything? XML is an open,
patent-free standard, and has hundreds (thousands?) of different
implementations on Linux, BSD, etc.
Or are you so afraid of anything having to do with Microsoft that you
won't use XML just because they like it?
XML may be patent free, but Microsoft has patented using XML to store
Word documents and using XML to store caller ID info. You know and
I know that these types of patents (do something people have done for
10s, 100s, or 1000s of years, but do it "with a computer", "on the
internet", "on the web", or "with XML") are patently ridiculous, but
the courts don't know that. For the 5+ years it would take for the
patent to be thrown out, only Microsoft, big corps, and scofflaw hackers
(as in "I'll play DVDs on my Linux computer when I feel like it") would be
able to use SPF2.
--
Stuart D. Gathman <stuart(_at_)bmsi(_dot_)com>
Business Management Systems Inc. Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flamis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.