Are Microsoft Going All Google On Us?

Miracle of miracles, Microsoft today launched a new campaign to be far more liberal with the release of over 30,000 documents, previously only available to those working within partnership programs.

‘Interoperability by Design’  sees a remarkable turnaround in previous policies held by the software giants as they promise not to enter into litigation with developers who use the shared code for new applications. To quote:

Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation to the extent it conforms to a Covered Specification (“Covered Implementation”), subject to the following. This is a personal promise directly from Microsoft to you, and you acknowledge as a condition of benefiting from it that no Microsoft rights are received from suppliers, distributors, or otherwise in connection with this promise. If you file, maintain or voluntarily participate in a patent infringement lawsuit against a Microsoft implementation of such Covered Specification, then this personal promise does not apply with respect to any Covered Implementation of the same Covered Specification made or used by you. 

This  move towards open source developers will surely be welcomed by many, who have in the past been nervous about working under the Microsoft Trade Secret agreements.

Many applications are being opened up to some extent including the .net framework.

General Manager Tom Robertson  offered this video explanation:

http://msstudios.vo.llnwd.net/o21/msstudios/0802/32351/Robertson_Interop.asx

Are Microsoft edging towards Google’s stance on sharing development information? Possibly, although there will of course not be full access to major programs, it does seem like a serious olive branch being placed before the independant development community.

 DAK