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Adrian Midgley wrote:
On Saturday 10 August 2002 10:54, you wrote:No they licenced it under the lesser GPL.They even have a licencing FAQ. http://www.openoffice.org/FAQs/main_faq_new_p4.htmlAha. The confusion lessens, slightly. Licencing it and positioning it as a collection of objects is not too dissimilar from what MS did with their office suite I think, starting around version 6 of Word.
Urm, I'd say totally dissimilar. That the technology is OO underneath, it should surprise no one that these things come to be objects, that is just what software looks like these days. Even if programs don't look like objects underneath you can always package them up that way. Microsoft release gratis the programs to manipulate these objects (on Microsoft operating systems only), but charge for the licence to create them, or modify content, hence Word viewers, and deliberately obfusicate the internal structure to prevent immitations. Meaning no one can guarantee Microsoft compatibility except through separate licencing deals with Microsoft, and they wouldn't be so daft as to agree anything too good for other people. SUN release the code free, and deliberate licence to enforce openness of underlying structures, meaning you will always be able to write your own tools to manipulate OpenOffice documents, if you so wish, no matter what value added features SUN introduce into Star Office. This is as stark a contrast as you can get in terms of licencing, one locks you out, one guarantees you will never be locked out. Unless we all decide to sell out to Microsoft, the Microsoft route is a dead end, it effects a private monopoly on the formats in use. Worse the encroaching copyright legislation may well in effect if not intent, make it illegal to even try and interoperate with the closed standard. The proposed modification to UK Copyright law are hideous, DMCA like monstrosity. I think the fundemental problem is they assume that such protection mechanisms will not add substantial costs to the legitimate end user. Perhaps I should relate my experience of enforced per seat licencing with a product from HP. Technical measures for enforcement of copyright are not the answer, if we believed those who said otherwise we'd have never allowed the printing press, the Xerox machine, or recordable audio tapes. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG Mail majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe list" in the message body to unsubscribe.