Re: Official statement from Microsoft concerning CSS, XSL and US Pa te nt No. 5,860,073

Towards the very end on the 2nd millenium a being known as Chris Wilson wrote:
> There has been much discussion of this issue on both of these lists, so I
> thought it might be appropriate to forward this statement to these lists as
> well.
>> "Microsoft agrees that any W3C member or other party will be able to
>> obtain a license under Microsoft's US Patent No. 5,860,073 to implement
>> and use the technology described in W3C Recommendations for Cascading
>> Style Sheets (CSS) and the EXtensible Style Language (XSL) for the purpose
>> of supporting such standards, on a royalty-free basis. One condition of
>> this license shall be the party's agreement to not assert patent rights
>> against Microsoft and other companies for their implementation of those
>> standards. Microsoft expressly reserves all other rights it may have in
>> the material and subject matter of this contribution."
>> -Chris Wilson
>> Internet Explorer Team
>> Microsoft Corporation

Style sheet patents (in which W3C had no small part in specifying),
Win98 hidden registrations ... (and this is only during the trial).

Does ANYONE in your organisation EVER stopp to consider WHY Microsoft
has gotten such a terribly bad reputation? Apparently not. No, you
cheerfully say that I certainly can get a license to use style sheets -
thank you I've been using them for a while now and will NOT ask
permission of "the empire" to continue using them.


M.

Received on Wednesday, 10 March 1999 00:42:05 UTC