Re: Regarding OOXML and Microsoft patents

[Rui Miguel Silva Seabra <rms 1407 org>]

Hi Michael,

On Fri, Jul 13, 2007 at 11:03:31AM +0100, Michael Meeks wrote:
> 	AFAICS - Standards may be open or closed, but Free software will
> eventually support them all.

I think this is naïve since even though they may be eventually
supported, they might not be used at all in business due to software
patents (example: Red Hat and Red Hat derivatives like Fedora do not
support MP3 and other interesting things that are otherwise very well
supported but quite problematic in the US and other countries RH
operates)

> From my (no doubt highly
> not-thought-through) viewpoint: Open Standards, is just a game that big
> companies play so their proprietary software can compete & with which
> they bludgeon each other in public. It also seems to be a game that
> Microsoft knows how to play.

Here in Portugal, in the OOXML fake-standard debate, the position of
Free Softwar activists has been that it's impossible to fully implement,
or might even be downright illegal to do it independently, closed formats.
True standards can't rely on hidden information (with special agreements
that need to be signed with Microsoft for certain parts of OOXML,
as has been found in a document Microsoft was forced to disclose in Spain).

If you want Free Software to be usable by business (big and small
alike), then you can't have legally dubious portions, or you risk losing
it all big time.

Rui

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