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Re: [News] Here Comes the OOXML 'Patent Tax' (Already!), OpenOffice.org Shielded

Jesper Lund Stocholm <jls2008@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> "[H]omer" <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote in news:92b9a5-rj4.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx:
> 
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> 
>>> Microsoft releases updated Office-OpenOffice XML translator, ramps up
>>> document interop efforts as ISO mulls OpenXML
>>> 
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | Microsoft today launched an update of its OpenXML and ODF
>>> | translator for its Excel and Powerpoint applications and pledged to
>>> | keep churning out more documentation to enable interoperability â??
>>> | and more patents to protect that IP.
>> 
>> Isn't that an oxymoron?
>> 
>>> | [...]
>>> |
>>> | Microsoft would not disclose pricing for its protocol licensing but
>>> | pledged today that going forward it will be offered at a
>>> | â??reasonable and non discriminatoryâ?? (RAND) manner.
>> 
>> Wait... I'm confused. Are they saying we need to /pay/ to use their
>> "open" standard?
> 
> No - they are talking about their release of the documentation of e.g. 
> internal Microsoft Office APIs and a long list of the protocols connecting 
> their vertical hub (SharePoint, Exchange Server etc).
> 

So you have to pay for documentation in order to use a proprietary
interface.  Of course, it won't be standard in any way, indeed, if it
were, there would be no need to pay for the documentation, therefore,
anyone using this is just asking for the spec to be changed in order to
have to buy the documentation again.  It's lock-in by another route.

-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk          |
| Cola faq:  http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/   |
| Cola trolls:  http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/                        |
| My (new) blog:  http://www.thereisnomagic.org                        |

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