The license basically says 'to implement sender id you will have to sign this
license so that microsoft has every right to
apply any patent issue they might have around on the shelves' even though at
this point they don't know or don't want
to tell which these patent issues are.
Executive summary of all the text below:
In short, MS won't charge if you don't charge. MS won't sue if you don't sue.
The thing is defined very narrowly to apply only to SenderID. I'm not a
lawyer, don't take this email to court.
I don't think the license is as bad as you imply.
It says (as I interpret), anybody in the world, who signs this license, is
free, without payment to MS, to develop, distribute, etc. implementations of
SenderID that include Microsoft's patented (core SenderID specific) technology,
whether those patents are in force now, or come into force at any time in the
future. (See Note below) Anybody in the world may use executable versions of
your code without any license whatsoever. You may distribute your source code
as widely as you like, provided you include MS's claim statement. Under this
license, you can't charge for source or executables incorporating MS's stuff.
For that you need to negotiate a commercial license with MS.
If you have, or will have, patents that specifically relate to core SenderID
implementation, you agree to license them to anybody in the world (including
MS) without charge, under terms substantially similar to this license. (I
think this would allow you to charge royalties for commercial implementations
including your proprietary technology, just as the license give MS the right to
charge royalties for commercial impemetations including their IP. But, then
you would have to go to MS for a commercial license. This free license would
not apply to your commercial distribution.)
If party3 sues Microsoft, or a Microsoft licensee (e.g. you) for patent
infringement over SenderID specific technology, party 3 loses their license.
This can be seen as protection for the free licensing of SenderID. Nobody else
can enforce SenderID specific claims that would interfere with the free
licensing of SenderID. (Well, they can, but they lose their license.)
I think it implies that, MS reserves the right to charge royalties for
commercial (i.e. you charge money for) distributions of software including
Microsoft's patented technology.
There is a whole paragraph that narrowly defines the license only to technology
that is necessary to implement SenderID and only in the context of SenderID.
That restriction applies both to MS technology that you are licensing, and to
any of your technology that you are required to freely license as a condition
of the MS license. This keeps the scope of the thing narrow, it doesn't
overflow into other areas, either MS's or anybody else's. If MS find's a use
for the patented technology in another area, they are free to require a
different license for it. If you find a use for MS's patented technology in
another area, MS is free to require you to take out a separate license, or any
of the other actions that patent law usually allows to them. If you have a
patent that you have to freely license for SenderID purposes under this
license, you are free to require a different license for it when applied in a
non SenderID application.
MS can not list more specifically what aspects of SenderID are covered by it's
patents because those patents do not exist yet. Only patent applications
exist. MS does not know, and will not know for some time, which parts, if any,
of it's applications will be granted patent protection.
When you use GPL'ed source code, you accept the terms of the GPL (Ever read it?
I have.), and they are not so different from the terms of this license. This
license has a few more teeth in it, but those appear to be aimed primarily at
protecting the free distribution of SenderID technology.
Yes you give up something if you accept this license. You partially give up
the right to charge for any software you write that includes MS's patented,
SenderID specific, technology. (If you charge, you have to negotiate a separate
license.) Note that this says patented, not just anything MS asserts. This
only covers technology that actually gets past the Patent Office's review and
isn't stricken by subsequent legal action. You don't actually give up your
right to sue MS (or anybody else) over SenderID, but if you do, you lose your
license. (A court might of course find that provision unenforceable if you win
your suit.)
In short, MS won't charge if you don't charge. MS won't sue if you don't sue.
MS *may* sue someone who attempts to assert that they own the patented SenderID
specific inventions, not MS. Somebody who sues MS over their own SenderID
patents had better be pretty sure of their case and their business
justification for it, because MS will pull their license. (I think suits
claiming MS's SenderID patents are no good are allowed.)
Note: US patent law requires that a patent application be started within one
year of the invention. Waiting longer than one year from the date of invention
kills patentability. Thus, MS can not, 3 years from now, submit an application
for a patent to cover technology already disclosed in public (e.g. IETF)
documents. One year from the publication of those IETF drafts would be the
absolute time limit for them to apply for patents, and in reality, the deadline
is probably sooner than that, because the actual date of invention is earlier
than the publication date.
I am not a lawyer. Don't take this as legal advice. It is my impression after
reading the license.
Mark Holm