[clug] Mono in Linux

[Chris Smart]

2009/6/2 Nathan O'Sullivan <nathan.osullivan at team.mammoth.com.au>:
>
> That said, the core of most anti-Mono arguments seem to be that (to quote)
> "Microsoft still holds patents in relation to these standards".
>
> Do they? Which patents? I've never seen any patents specifically named.

In typical Microsoft fashion they don't tell anyone. If you look into
the VFAT issues, they were threatening companies and making them pay
royalties over patents, but then got them to sign non-disclosure
agreements about what those patents actually were. It wasn't until
TomTom said "no" that Microsoft then sued them which brought the
patents to light.

Once the patents were known, they were able to be worked around, as
you can see from Tridge's kernel patch.

> And how do these patents manage to cover C# but not Java?

I'm no expert, but Java is a little different because it is released
under the GPLv2, which requires royalty-free distribution. This is one
of the reasons it took Sun so long to release it under the GPL,
because some components of Java, such as audio, were owned by external
stakeholders who refused to release their software under the GPL.

Part of section 7 of the GPLv2
("http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html") states:

"If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent
infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues),
conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot
distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this
License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you
may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then
the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
refrain entirely from distribution of the Program."

The GPLv3 makes it even more abundantly clear in section 11.

At least, that's my understanding :-)

-c