[aclug-L] Microsoft Announcement

[Bruce Bales <bbales@xxxxxxx>]

Cnet news has an article today regarding an announcement by Microsoft at 
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9876029-56.html?part=dht&tag=nl.e703
in which they say they will not sue over open source. Part of the announcement 
is below.
bruce

Microsoft pledges not to sue over open source

Microsoft on Thursday announced changes in its business practices to work 
better with software from other providers, including open-source communities. 

It laid out four principles aimed at making its high-volume enterprise 
software support standards and better handling data from non-Microsoft 
software. 

Specifically, Microsoft said it will publish the documentation for the 
application programming interfaces and communications protocols in 
its "high-volume products." Developers do not need to buy a license or pay a 
royalty to access the information. 

As a first step, Microsoft will publish protocols for communicating with 
Windows Server, which had previously only been available under a trade secret 
license. Protocols for interoperability with Office 2007 will be published in 
the coming months, the company said.

Microsoft said the pledge will ultimately extend to Windows Vista, the .NET 
Framework, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Office 2007, Exchange Server 
2007, and Office SharePoint Server 2007.

Microsoft said that it will not sue open-source developers who create 
non-commercial software based on Microsoft's protocols.

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