-----Original Message-----
From: Mitch (WebCob)
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 5:40 PM
You may have said the KEY PHRASE there... "it will not be
possible for me..." - you would be a target.
I wonder if this would be another scenario where something
similar to the RSA stuff where various encryption libraries
were released as free code maintained offshore which users
could plug into their systems freely - as long as they
weren't in a country upholding RSA's patent rights?
I think you're confusing RSA's patents with the US Department of Commerce's
export restrictions.
And in any case, in this situation that would limit the people doing the
work to people in countries in which Microsoft has no legal presence.
Which is... Nowhere? They've got Antartica covered, even!
It's like GIF? Who in their right mind would pay to use it?!?!
People who wanted a compact and standard image format. The thing with GIF
is the patent (which has now expired) arrived after the format had become
widely used.
This is part of the Microsoft issue here: whether or not there exist patents
and/or royalty requirements *today*, no-one wants to get stung by something
down the road becoming non-royalty free or restrictive. Or (even more
likely) finding themselves obligated to do something they don't want to do,
by virtue of the license.
The code could be a patch to absolve you of risk ;-)
That would still mess up the GPL, unless it could be integrated as a
stand-alongside binary package.
Malc.
6 messages in net.sourceforge.lists.courier-usersRE: [courier-users] DEPLOY: SPF/Sende...
