Fwd: [uf-discuss] Legal implications of using Microformats

[Brian Suda]

On 5/1/07, Guy Fraser <gfraser at adaptavist.com> wrote:
> Joe Andrieu wrote:
> > My apologies to those who may be earnestly trying to come up with a viable solutions.  If you are out there, please give us a report
> > on where things stand.
> >
>
> Our company has decided to avoid microformats.org like the plague for
> now as we feel something fishy is going on. The
> licensing/patenting/copyright/ownership issues are as blatant as the
> attempts to brush discussions about them under the carpet. This thread
> on the list would be an ideal place for such issues to be discussed and
> cleared up, but as usual - silence. One has no choice but to assume the
> worst. We also note that the requirement for all submissions to be fully
> researched is a common requirement for patent application.

--- i'm sorry you feel that way. Sometimes threads don't get much of a
discussion because:1) people don't have any opinion
2) they are not lawyers
3) they don't have an issue with the topic
4) the signal-to-noise prevents people from reading all messages
5) we are all volunteers and can't reply right away.

As one of the authors of the hCard and hCalendar specs, i personally
have no intention of doing anything sneaky or under-handed. I'm sorry
you feel that you need to "avoid microformats like the plague" they
are one of the simplest things to add and back-out if there are
issues.

I would always assume the best, and if things get bad, then we as a
community can take-up these issues.

Rather than taking the negative approach, how about we take this
thread and talk about constructive criticisms to make things better.
I'm not a lawyer (nor do i play one on TV), so i can't give you the
exact advice or suggestions about what you want, but i'm sure someone
in the community can further explain some of the hang-ups. I know some
are on the wiki already, but like i said - it is not my field of
expertise.

I keep going back to how companies like Microsoft and Yahoo have
decided to use microformats, if they thought there were problems, they
would have been the first to complain.

Lets talk about what/if any changes could be made to make things more
clear. I'm certainly up for clarifying things, as an author, i'm not
trying to hide or do something sneaky.

-brian

-- 
brian suda
http://suda.co.uk