Why IP owners should worry]]

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        Re: [IP] Why IP owners should worry]
Date:   Thu, 24 Nov 2005 10:12:45 -0800
From:   Glenn Fleishman <glenn () glennf com>
To:     dave () farber net



Melanie Wyne states in her article:
> The state finally settled on the  
> mandated use of OASIS' OpenDocument Format, plus Adobe's PDF schema,  
> for its executive agencies' office suites by January 2007. This  
> policy has pitted those in favor of government mandates to meet  
> "larger considerations" against others in the industry who favor a  
> more market-oriented approach.

The only opposition to a policy that allows any company to produce programs that
can read and write to openly available, fully documented file format standards
is a company that has proprietary interests in keeping their own format
standard: Microsoft.

The market-oriented approach has resulted in a single vendor that protects
aspects of its document format by using non-standard XML, proprietary elements,
and binary encoding. There's nothing wrong with any of that except when it
prevents the free interchange of information--when it produces friction.

With all the talk of making government more efficient, the required use of a
licensed format that can't be fully edited or supported by an ecosystem of
software is anti-competitive. We know through court decisions how Microsoft won
the format wars. The market "deciding" on a single format is hardly competitive
or a free market in action.

When she writes:
> Others believe that it represents  
> a mandate for a single type of software model, one purposely imposed  
> to limit competition, not strengthen it.

This is pure Microsoft FUD. Microsoft can very easily produce versions of Office
that are fully compatible with the Massachusetts standard. How is competition
limited when many thousands of companies may be able to provide interoperable,
interchangeable products where there is a single one now?

The organization that Wyne represents is essentially an arm of Microsoft under
the auspices of a more neutral group. ZDNet News wrote about this way back in
2002:

<http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-949527.html>

Microsoft has a fascinating page on "software choice" that cites this group, and
which has an almost entirely fair and objective discussion of open source
software, with just a few exceptions.

<http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/Government/opensource.mspx>

They write: "Some proprietary software, such as Microsoft Windows, is also
provided in source code form although this is generally not the case for all
commercial software companies."

Some of the details are out of date: "CERT, a leading organization that tracks
security vulnerabilities, reported that in 2002 there were 5 security
vulnerabilities found for Microsoft Windows, 12 for Red Hat Linux and 12 for Sun
Solaris."

The very last part of the Microsoft document is relevant to this discussion:

> The Free Software community views software as "speech" instead of property. It
seeks to curtail or eliminate certain types of intellectual property laws and
protections. For example, Free Software advocates oppose software patents and
are actively seeking to eliminate the ability of innovators to patent and
protect new software advances.

This is, of course, ridiculous, and we know that open source and free software
aren't the same thing. There are plenty of software companies that now oppose
many softare patents, and the underpinning of free and open source software
requires intellectual property protections to handle misuse of the licenses that
underlie their work.

The idea that open source, particularly, is equivalent to public domain is one
that I see all the time.
--
Glenn Fleishman
seattle, washington
work and home: glennf.com
wireless data news: wifinetnews.com
email sent to me will not be quoted unless you allow me
email sent from me is intended to be private unless noted otherwise


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