Well this brings up an interesting point. Hypothetical: Let's assume that AT&T drop support for VNC altogether and there is only an Open Source version available. If a court ruled that it was illegal to run on a M$ operating system, then who would they sue? The developers? Well they are transitory, they come and go and don't profit (monitarily anyway), and would you just sue the current bunch or everybody who worked on it before (after all, they are probably the ones responsible, the current people are more likely to be maintainers if it's a mature OS release). It would really have to be the users and how could M$ sue their end-point customers (not to mention there would be so many and hard to track). Could they force the site hosting the source to remove it? Isn't th
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Simon Hobson Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 04:37 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: What is the word here about Microsoft, VNC and XP? Bruce Williams wrote: >I have been informed by several companies whose products, like VNC, are made >"illegal" on the surface by this language that common legal opinion is that >any attempt to enforce like agreements would face real problems not being >considered an '"illegal constraint of trade". Anyone would have trouble >enforcing such an agreement. Considering Microsoft has been ruled a >monopolist, their chances of enforcing agreements that restrict trade are >"less than average" On the face of it, yes. But ... Would any of us have the resources to defend such an action ? I suspect that unless someone had a good reason (eg defending their right to sell a competing product), then most would simply be forced to settle out of court (on Micro$ofts terms) on the grounds that any other action would result in insolvency/bankruptcy. Simon -- Simon Hobson, Technical Services Engineer Colony Gift Corporation Limited Lindal in Furness, Ulverston, Cumbria, LA12 0LD Tel 01229 461100, Fax 01229 461101 Registered in England No. 1499611 Regd. Office : 100 New Bridge Street, London, EC4V 6JA. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the line: 'unsubscribe vnc-list' in the message BODY See also: http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/intouch.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the line: 'unsubscribe vnc-list' in the message BODY See also: http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/intouch.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------
