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Microsoft Continues Dance with Open Source, EU

Microsoft made a big kafuffle today to announce yet another "openness" initiative. This time, it involves publishing tens of thousands of pages of software protocols, something European Union regulators have been demanding for some time now. Not surprisingly, the EU -- so far, at least -- still isn't happy.

Redmond also pledged not to sue for patent infringement open source developers who develop software for "non-commercial distribution." (So, that includes Microsoft's own customers...right?) Microsoft is also going to let us know once and for all which of its protocols are patented, and then license those patents at what it calls low rates.

The whole Microsoft spiel is here. Also, look for more coverage of this announcement -- and maybe a snarky comment or two -- in Friday's RCPU.

Posted by Lee Pender on February 21, 2008


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