Re: (Second) Last Call for XPointer 1.0

[Ben Trafford <ben@legendary.org>]

	(see Ben peek out of the woodwork on an important issue)

	Y'know, as somebody who's implementing an open source 
XLink/XPointer-inclusive product, I have say that Sun can come and get me, 
if they're so inclined. My attorneys agree that their patent in this regard 
is unsupportable, at about the same level as Microsoft's much-reviled 
patent on the concept of stylesheets. I have to disagree with Tim's 
assertion that this patent would keep -any- players from making XPointer 
implementations, because by the same logic, they'd have to attack XPath and 
XSLT as well. They're built on the same basis and nearly as offense to the 
patent.

	We all know that XPath and XSLT have been implemented, even though the 
patent would obviously apply to that as well. What about the XML Querying 
efforts? Should we expect those to be affected as well? Is Sun going to sue 
everybody who's implemented those standards, too? I doubt it. Perhaps the 
big companies with the massive, anal retentive legal teams will shy away 
from implementation, but that hasn't stopped them from working with 
stylesheets, despite Microsoft's (as yet) unchallenged patent in the area. 
I expect Sun's patent will be ignored, just as Microsoft's was.

	However, I fully intend to send mail to Sun's legal department via the 
links Eve has so thoughtfully provided, and I encourage you all to to do 
the same. I think Sun will get the message -- and if not, they can sue me, 
and a whole bunch of other folks. I rather expect they'd lose.

--->Ben Trafford