[Mono-list] Uncertainty and Doubt about MONO

[Alex Nedelcu]

Yes, thanks.

This announcement generated a lot of negative feelings towards Novell.
It has everything to do with Microsoft still being the main threat to our
ecosystem.

Anyway, time will tell if this partnership was good or bad for the
open-source landscape.

I am sorry I posted this topic here ... many developers don't want to hear
such rants,
so can you guys initiate a new mailing list where such issues can be
discussed ?


On 11/5/06, Miguel de Icaza <miguel at ximian.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> You have some valid questions, and I have followed up to some of the
> concerns similar to this one on my blog:
>
>         http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2006/Nov-04.html
>
> In addition, Jonathan Pryor has a good entry that explores the issue in
> more detail than I have done, and also is a good primer for anyone that
> might be confused:
>
> http://www.jprl.com/Blog/archive/development/mono/2006/Nov-04.html
>
> That being said, a few corrections:
>
> > Didn't Miguel de Icaza assured us that Mono was safe, that there are no
> > known patents that Mono infringes, that .NET is an ECMA
> > standard, that even if Mono infringes on some patents then the Open
> > Inventions Network will protect it ?
>
> I said the first part;
>
> I also said that Mono was one of the technologies protected by the
> OIN.
>
> > Didn't Miguel said that Novell conducted a whole investigation on
> > Microsoft owned patents and no infringed patents where found ?
>
> I did not say that, and I have no idea where this comes from.
>
> It is not practical to review every patent out there (owned by everyone
> out there) and match every claim against every piece of code written in
> the source code.
>
> Many patents will likely be invalid, many will have prior art, many will
> be unenforceable, many claims are too broad to be valid in court;  So
> the only way of "testing" a patent is to go to court.
>
> This  likely means that a patent holder will need to determine which
> parts might infringe, and might have to evaluate what is the cost of
> going to court, what are the possible benefits to himself (if you sue
> someone that never made any money, what exactly will you win?), and also
> what are the risks of a counter-lawsuit?  The patent holder must ask
> himself whether the trouble of going to court is worth the price of a
> potential counter suit.
>
> Another alternative is to come up with some kind of agreement, "we
> believe we own this much IP, we believe you own that much IP" combined
> with "we believe we are making this much money, you are making that much
> money".
>
> There might be others, and the deals will greatly vary depending on the
> cases and usually they cover more than patents (like Novell/MS covers
> technical collaborations).
>
> Miguel
>
>
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