History does indeed repeat itself

Microsoft is about to begin asserting IP (Intellectual Property, not to be confused with Internet Protocol whos acronym is also IP) rights on their so called "Royalty Free Protocol List". Basically from what I gather from the articles, they are starting to flex their muscles and say "We are the rightful owners of these protocols".

Now that would be all well and good, except that the majority of these protocols they did not develop. Microsoft is claiming to possess the rights to many of the core protocols that the internet uses to function. Protocols such as TCP/IP and DNS are critical to the operation of the internet as we know it today.

What does this mean for the average internet user?
Lets consider a possible scenario. In this scenario Microsoft has decided to start charging royalties for "their" protocols. As a result of this, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may be billed for using TCP/IP on their network, not to mention running DNS, DHCP, FTP, HTTP, LDAP, PPP, PPPoE, POP3, and SSL servers amongst other things, who would then pass these costs onto you. Your university may also incur these charges, along with the Government, your workplace, and even yourself.

This type of thing has happened quite recently. Back in January 2003, SCO Group, who own the operating system UNIX, claimed that much of the code in the Linux kernel had been copied from the UNIX kernel, violating their copyright, and as a result started issuing invoices requesting payment of large amounts of money to large well known corporations.

Some of these companies paid SCO, others didn't. To this date SCO has not succeeded in claiming the copyright infringement of the UNIX kernel.

Lets take a look at some of the protocols that Microsoft claims they hold the IP rights to.

TCP/IP for example, is listed on Microsoft's RFPL, and Microsoft even has a link to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request For Comment (RFC) document dated September 1981, and written by "Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California" (http://ietf.org/rfc/rfc0791.txt).

AppleTalk is also listed as a Microsoft Royalty Free Protocol, and links to Apple's Developer website.

Larry J. Blunk writes "The fact that a significant number of protocols date from the early 1980's, a time during which Microsoft had little patent activity, suggests that there is no reason to suspect that Microsoft has any patent rights to these early protocols (such as the TCP/IP v4 core protocols)"¹.

So essentially Microsoft's claim on protocols such as TCP/IP, DNS, and HTTP have no clear ground. Protocols such as MS-CHAP (Microsoft Challenge Handshake Protocol), CIFS (Common Internet File System) and others may be legal Microsoft property, however these protocols are not necessary for the operation of the Internet and World Wide Web, and we could easily deal without them.

How long will it be before Microsoft begin to issue invoices to non Windows users?


References:
1. Blunk, L. 2004. Concerns regarding Microsoft's Royalty Free Protocol License Agreement. [Online]. Available: http://www1.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/ipr-wg/current/msg02436.html [8 November 2004]

2. michael. 2004. Microsoft Offers to License the Internet. [Online]. Available: http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/11/07/0519237.shtml?tid=109&tid=155&tid=123&tid=98 [8 November 2004]

3. Vaughan-Nichols, Steven J. 2004. Is Microsoft Ready to Assert IP Rights over the Internet? [Online]. Available: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1714680,00.asp [8 November 2004]

4. Microsoft Corporation. ROYALTY FREE PROTOCOL LICENSE AGREEMENT. [Online]. Available: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/randz/protocol/royalty_free_protocol_license_agreement.asp [8 November 2004]

5. O'Gara, M. SCO Threatens to Press IP Claims on Linux. [Online]. Available: http://www.sys-con.com/linux/article.cfm?id=381 [8 November 2004]