[ogsa-wg] RSS FW: Microsoft makes Web services spec vow

[Maguire_Tom at emc.com]

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Microsoft <http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/007884.html>
makes Web services spec vow

 

Anybody who wants to use the WS-* specifications for Web services
standardization won't get sued by Microsoft. 

The company this week posted a bulletin
<http://www.microsoft.com/interop/osp/default.mspx#EIB>  stating it would
not assert claims for usage of 35 specifications listed in the document.
Microsoft has been a co-developer of these technologies and seeks to spread
their usage by making what it calls its "Microsoft Open Specification
Promise," which now takes the acronym, OSP.

"It was a simple, clear way, after looking at many different licensing
approaches, to reassure a broad audience of developers and customers that
the specification(s) could be used for free, easily, now and forever," the
company said. 

"Because Web services are a being widely adopted across the industry and
with our customers, we decided to remove any potential questions about the
widespread use of our IP in the implementation of these specifications," Tom
Robertson, general manager for interoperability and standards at Microsoft,
said in a statement released by the company.

"This is a personal promise directly from Microsoft to you, and you
acknowledge as a condition of benefiting from it that no Microsoft rights
are received from suppliers, distributors, or otherwise in connection with
this promise," the bulletin states. All bets are off, however, for anyone
who participate in a patent infringement lawsuit against Microsoft over any
of the specifications. 

Among the specifications covered include WSDL, SOAP, WS-Enumeration,
WS-Federation and several specifications related to WS-Security. Reaction to
Microsoft's move, posted with the bulletin, was favorable from open source
advocates. 

"I see Microsoft's introduction of the OSP as a good step by Microsoft to
further enable collaboration between software vendors and the open source
community. This OSP enables the open source community to implement these
standard specifications without having to pay any royalties to Microsoft or
sign a license agreement. I'm pleased that this OSP is compatible with free
and open source licenses," said Lawrence Rosen, of the technology law firm
of Rosenlaw & Einschlag.

Red Hat also endorsed the move.

"Red Hat believes that the text of the OSP gives sufficient flexibility to
implement the listed specifications in software licensed under free and open
source licenses. We commend Microsoft's efforts to reach out to
representatives from the open source community and solicit their feedback on
this text, and Microsoft's willingness to make modifications in response to
our comments," said Mark Webbink, deputy general counsel at Red Hat. 

Comments
<http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/007884.html#comments>  (0)

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Article
    Title: Microsoft makes Web services spec vow
    Link: http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/007884.html
    Author: ~Paul Krill
    Publication Date: 9/13/2006 1:52:26 PM



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