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Open protocols and their licenses - SWPAT?



Es könnte so aussehen, das die einzige Möglichkeit, ein Protokoll
--- nicht die Implementation --- zu schützen, die Patentierung wäre.
Damit wäre es vielleicht dringend notwendig, alle offenen Netzprotokolle,
RFCs etc. als Softwarepatente anzumelden bzw. umgekehrt die
Veröffentlichung als RFC einer solchen Patentierung (durch wen?) 
gleichzustellen.

http://technocrat.net/958149990/index_html

     Open Protocols and Their Licenses
   Posted by: Bruce Perens on Friday May 12, @09:46AM
   
   Microsoft recently made modifications to the Kerberos protocol.
   Kerberos is under the BSD license, but Microsoft's modifications are
   under a very restrictive license and are considered trade-secret.
   This, obviously, is not a step forward for interoperability. Consider
   what the case would have been if the Kerberos protocol had been under
   a license that allowed free use, but demanded the publication of a
   reference implementation or full documentation for any modifications,
   under the same terms as the license for the rest of the protocol.
   Microsoft would have had to turn to another protocol, or design its
   own, or publish the reference implementation.
   
   Here's a case in which I think a license that kept the protocol free
   would have been more appropriate than a do anything you want license.
   You can extend this from protocols to software licenses and the old
   BSD vs. GPL argument, too.
   ...


ralf
-- 
http://ME.IN-berlin.de/~rws/