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Behind the web

For proponents of the open Web there is another pressing problem with Moonlight and Silverlight. Silverlight brings another set of proprietary codecs to the Web, and this is not something free software developers, who see HTML5 as the future for "rich internet applications", wish to perpetuate.

As Tim Berners-Lee puts it: "The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local or global, be it draft or highly polished."

The concept and the technologies were given away free, and the Web has worked well because the protocols and standards have remained free and open, universal, consistent and simple, and the players, for the most part, have had to play ball and follow the rules. Every computer can talk to every other computer and share information at a fairly basic level, and we are able to share Berners-Lee's "common information space" as a universal resource.

In an ideal world, this model should apply to all aspects of the network. But the reality is sometimes different, as illustrated by the $1.52 billion judgement against Microsoft in February 2007 for infringing patents taken out by Bell Laboratories and held by Alcatel-Lucent on MP3 audio compression technologies.

MP3 was acknowledged as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1993, but contains a number of patented technologies owned by a variety of corporate entities who gained "ownership" of Bell Labs 'IP' after the break up of AT&T, several of which have staked claims on the relative success of the format.

Microsoft was later able to make a successful appeal on the grounds that it had paid $16 million to Fraunhofer IIS, who also claimed ownership of the format. But as this tale suggests, anyone, including Microsoft, can become the victim of proprietary technologies, and they do not make for a healthy Web.

Welcome to the real world

Microsoft encourages Mono and Moonlight because these projects help to spread the word and bring developers into the Microsoft fold. Many individuals within Microsoft have a genuine interest in promoting the idea of "open source", and from a different point of view, patent agreements and covenants of the type that Microsoft have signed with Novell bring the additional benefit that they spread the uncertainty and doubt that Linux may be susceptible to legal action for patent infringement.

At the same time Moonlight gives credibility to Microsoft's claim that Silverlight is multi-platform, accessible to free software developers and a "part of the open Web." In discussion with SDTimes, Bob Muglia, vice president of Microsoft's Server and Tools Business unit, and Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, were keen to make this point, that "Microsoft has licensed associated intellectual property, including Windows Media codecs, to open-source developers."

However, when Miguel de Icaza indicated that he "wanted Microsoft to go a step further by contributing technology to ECMA International" he drew the evasive response from Muglia that Microsoft was "trying to balance standards with its ability to rapidly innovate the Silverlight platform", or as it is expressed elsewhere, striking "a balance between standards and the real world."

Next: A flash in the pan

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