Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20061122235224396
| The Gotcha on that MS License on the Office 2007 "Giveaway"
| Monday, November 27 2006 @ 11:23 AM EST
|
| You've probably seen the story about Microsoft's "royalty-free
| licensing program" on its Office 2007 user interface:
| Microsoft on Tuesday announced a royalty-free licensing program
| so that outside developers can apply the Office 2007 interface
| to their own applications.
| Unfortunately, there is a gotcha. Microsoft doesn't actually say
| "anyone" can use this license, as the story indicates; it says in
| their blog entry that "virtually anyone" can. Isn't there always a
| catch with Microsoft? Usually a GPL gotcha? So who can and who
| can't?
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e2ddd3fb-863
5-4d54-8730-102b75c31db6&displaylang=en
or http://tinyurl.com/36szdc
Downloaded FINAL_2007_OFFICE_UI_LICENSE.doc, which BTW I am reading
in OpenOffice 2 on my laptop has a gotcha, this:
| 1.e. ?Excluded Products? are software products or components, or
| web-based or hosted services that perform primarily the same
| general functions as the Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
| Outlook and Access software applications, and that are created or
| marketed as a replacement for any or all of those Microsoft
| applications.
Another is:
| 3.a. The Design Guidelines are Microsoft?s confidential
| information. As long as they remain confidential, you cannot
| disclose them to anyone else without Microsoft?s prior written
| approval. However, you may disclose them to your contractors who
| have a need to know as long as they also agree to keep the
| information confidential. The Design Guidelines will stop being
| confidential if their contents become publicly known through no
| fault of yours. You and your contractors may use the Design
| Guidelines only to comply with this agreement.
There is more, but not worth discussing here. However, seeing
OpenOffice opened this document without problems, there would not
even be a need to consider experimenting, IMHO.
Linux apps need no assistance.
--
HPT
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