Re: European Directive on Copyright Law (91/EC/250) wrt open source
Raul Miller wrote:
> On Mon, May 03, 2004 at 08:41:30PM +0200, Arnoud Engelfriet wrote:
> > A dominant market player could use the GPL in an abusive way.
> > For example, consider Microsoft licensing its standard libraries
> > under GPL.
>
> After thinking about a number of scenarios, I don't think that this
> would work as a form of abuse.
Maybe not, it was just a top-of-my-head suggestion. The abuse
would be forcing others to license their work under certain
terms. By itself you can request that, but if you're a dominant
player the rules change.
MS is currently being investigated in Europe and Japan for
allegedly forcing its OEM licensees to give them royalty-free
patent licenses for anything Windows infringes. Nothing wrong
with asking a RF license, but forcing that by using your market
power _is_ wrong.
Arnoud
--
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/
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