[Mono-list] A Few Articles Are Floating Around Questioning the Royalty-Freeness of Mono and Moonlight

[Sean Beeson]

Hi List,

I am sure many of you have dealt with the issue before, but for us who
haven't been keeping up on the issue or only now need to decide on
what to use the latest issues brought up in the Open Source News
article http://www.osnews.com/story/21586/Mono_Moonlight_Patent_Encumbered_Or_Not_/
and iTwire's article
http://www.itwire.com/content/view/25215/1090/1/0/ make me worry
still. There seems to be some question to if CLI, although an ECMA
standard, can actually be used legally with Mono and Moonlight. Is
there anything that has addressed Open Source News' questions and the
iTWire's claims that it is very difficult to get this "royalty-free,
reasonable and non-discriminatory" licence" to avoid violating
Microsoft patents in the .NET specification? These claims are despite
Miguel de Icaza's article http://www2.apebox.org/wordpress/linux/51/ .
In fact, the questions arise from that article.

Thanks,

--Sean