[Mono-list] Microsoft XML patent sparks outrage

[Dan Maltes]

Gee, no need to worry:
http://software.silicon.com/applications/0,39024653,39130795,00.htm

Gulp!

-Dan Maltes 

-----Original Message-----
From: mono-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com
[mailto:mono-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com] On Behalf Of Pedro Santos Gómez
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 8:25 PM
To: David Waite
Cc: mono-list at lists.ximian.com
Subject: Re: [Mono-list] Web Services and patents

Hi David,

Thank for your answer. And, I know, and yes, I worry more about innovation
than about patents :-)

Once said that, in the following map:
http://www.mono-project.com/Image:Monocomponentsmap.png

I see that "Soap Web Clients" and "Soap Web Servers"
have same colour as ADO.NET (which is not the cyan colour - called "Patent
free", neither the green colour - part of the Mono stack).

I know that even the "Patent free" coloured components could be using
patented code even by third parties, and I agree that this stuff should not
worry as much as innovation.

But, what I'm wondering is basically that, in the same way I might use GDA
instead of ADO.NET, or GTK# instead of Windows Forms, there is any component
"safer" (ok, no software is safe, but nobody says that GTK# could ever be
removed from Mono as they do with Windows Forms -in the worst of worst
cases, of course-, so maybe we can say that gtk# is safer than windows
forms), than the Web Services from ASP.NET.
And, if there is no one, what is the worst case that could happen?

The fact that Novell itself uses this web services (for example here):
http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/cvs/cvsbrowse.php/ifolder/gaim-ifolder
/src/GaimDomain/#dirlist
gives me some security.

I mean, all what I want is to have a solid answer to any question my project
director could ask. And this is the point where my doubts are bigger,
because I can't just tell him "dont think about patents" or "other patents
could destroy our project anyway".

Thank you again :)

--- David Waite <dwaite at gmail.com> escribió:
> There is no application of knowledge on a computer (including writing 
> a "Hello, World" application) which is completely safe from US patent 
> lawsuit. There is nothing to prevent someone from having a patent 
> against the concept of SOAP, or for that matter the concept of XML, or 
> network-based data interchange. Whether or not these patents could be 
> struck down in court is another matter.
> 
> I suggest you worry less about patents and more about innovation.
> Otherwise you will spend so much time learning international patent 
> law and researching patents that you will never produce anything.
> There is no guaranteed safe ground, no matter what programming 
> language you write your implementation in, or which vendor designed 
> the API you use. The only sanity comes from not letting the problems 
> stop you from meeting your potential, and fighting tooth and nail the 
> problems in the system every chance you get.
> 
> -David Waite
> 


	
	
		
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