Documentation Compliance Means MS Can Resume Collecting Protocol Royalties 139
angry tapir writes "Microsoft may begin collecting royalties again for licensing some protocols because clear technical documentation is now available, according to the US Department of Justice. The change comes after the DOJ issued its latest joint status report regarding its 2002 antitrust settlement with Microsoft. The settlement required Microsoft to make available technical documentation that would allow other vendors to make products that are interoperable with Windows."
Decision to force them to document more protocols (Score:4, Interesting)
An interesting side effect of the DOJ's decision to force Microsoft to document more of their protocols was that internal Microsoft employees have found their job easier and the teams more efficient.
I stumbled across this tidbit while research for a final paper about software patent (good/bad/why/alternatives). You can read about it here [ssrn.com].
Re:Outrageous (Score:3, Interesting)
As for copyright, yeah, you can copyright anything, but I can still use your work, just not publish the recipe.
Re:Outrageous (Score:4, Interesting)
Did Microsoft made yet another mistake? (Score:1, Interesting)
OK. So the government order Microsoft to document the protocols. Microsoft then does what the government asks. Now the government acknowledges that Microsoft has done what was asked.
Somehow, the comments here make it seem like Microsoft made yet another mistake. Wasn't this what they asked Microsoft to do?
Re:Outrageous (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Outrageous (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:protocols (Score:3, Interesting)
Blizzard online game protocols ...
Fortunately reverse engineering a product for the purpose of interoperability is allowed under the DMCA.
That's assuming, of course, that you can convince a judge that your purpose was interoperability. Last I heard, it was still illegal to make a client interoperate with Blizzard's servers [massively.com], and illegal to make a server interoperate with Blizzard's clients [eff.org].