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News: More news on the Sun vs Microsoft Deal

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  1. More news on the Sun vs Microsoft Deal (4 messages)

    • Posted by: Vic Cekvenich
    • Posted on: September 15 2004 22:36 EDT
    Things have been quiet since the landmark $1.6 billion settlement between Sun and Microsoft. An interop announcement is scheduled in the coming months, but people jumped on a Sun 10k filing stating that it "probably is as close as Microsoft can legally get to buying OpenOffice.org."
    Today a site called LinuxElectrons posted a story categorizing Sun Microsystems' recent 10k filing as "probably as close as Microsoft can legally get to buying OpenOffice.org." Sun, however, strongly disagrees with this characterization and listed several clarifications for us. In short, it's just not true.

    The 10K filing, submitted as the result of a landmark, $1.6 billion agreement last April Fool's Day between the two companies, lists three exhibits that deal specifically with the highly publicized Microsoft settlement agreement. The meat of the document states that Microsoft reserves the right to pursue patent infringement claims against OpenOffice.org, but allows for indemnification against such claims against StarOffice. StarOffice is a commercial office suite sold by Sun that is based on the free OpenOffice.org project.
    Sun denies report that it is 'selling out' OpenOffice
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  2. Talk about jumping to to conclusions![ Go to top ]

    Talk about jumping to to conclusions!

    Sun indemnifies itself agains StarOffice patent violations.
    The slashdot-type crowd interprets this as: "uhh, err, well that must mean that they have just sold OpenOffice to Microsoft" *like totally man* ;)

    There is no connection. Some nutters are already claiming this this is to do with "a wider SCO/Microsoft conspiracy".
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  3. Not "Sold," "Sold Out"[ Go to top ]

    M A,

    "Microsoft reserves the right to pursue patent infringement claims against OpenOffice.org, but allows for indemnification against such claims against StarOffice..."

    Actually, I think the interpretation is that because Sun will allow Microsoft to pursue patent infringement claims against OpenOffice, but not StarOffice, they sold OpenOffice out, meaning they (i.e., Sun) put OpenOffice at risk while protecting themselves.

    Regards,
    Frank Neugebauer
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  4. this is how some view it[ Go to top ]

    http://jroller.com/page/erAck/20040915#sun_ms_covenant_and_openoffice
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  5. And ... the fog of war cleared:[ Go to top ]

    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1618813,00.asp

    .V
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