Office 2003 XML, Microsoft, Patents and Linux

[Brian Densmore]

"Microsoft offers an open and royalty-free documentation and license of the Microsoft Office 2003 
XML Reference Schemas. These include SpreadsheetML (the schema for Microsoft Office Excel 2003), 
FormTemplate Schemas (the schema for Microsoft Office InfoPath(tm) 2003), and WordprocessingML (the 
schema for Microsoft Office Word 2003)."

Gee how kind of them to allow Tim Berners-Lee to use a document format he created.

But wait better read the license first!
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/ip/format/xmlpatentlicense.asp
Blah blah blah blah ... you can't distribute this without our
notice ... blah blah blah blah ... if you translate our stuff
you'd better put our notice in here even if you have never
seen our schemas ... blah blah blah .. or we'll hang out to dry
you g**da** commie rat-bas**** Linux toting %$#@!@@#@# ... blah blah blah

Wait a minute! There's more better read all these technical documents
for more copyright notices.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/xmloffice/default.aspx
I didn't open them, os as not to corrupt my soul.

I almost downloaded the schemas, but thought better of it.

And just where does Microsoft think they can put XML and patent together
and call it their own?

Grrrrrrr! I need to go have a scotch or something to cool off...

 Brian

Windows 95 - A 
32 bit extension to a 
16 bit shell for a
 8 bit operating system designed for
 4 bit computers by a
 2 bit company that can't stand
 1 bit of competition.