This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: The logical endpoint of the IP wars Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

Ever wondered how far the IP wars were going to go in the software world? We may have some idea with this eweek story:

Blunk pointed out that Microsoft is claiming some form of IP rights over "a total of 130 protocols which Microsoft is offering for license."

"Many of the listed protocols are IETF RFC request for comment documents, including but not limited to the core TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6 protocol specifications," he said in his note.

Some of the RFC protocols that Microsoft asserts that it may have IP rights over, such as the TCP/IP protocols and the DNS (Domain Name System), form the very bedrock of the Internet's network infrastructure.

"Microsoft does not specify how this list of protocols was derived and to what extent they have investigated their possible rights holdings over these protocols," Blunk said. "The list appears to be a near but not completely exhaustive list of public protocols implemented in Microsoft products.

The thinking in the article is that MS is simply fishing for license acceptance in hopes of being able to exploit them later. Either way, this is a disturbing trend. I wonder if Jonathan Schwartz still likes IP law as much...