Last week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday got underway in the US, Larry Rosen, the attorney that wrote the book on open source licensing and the man who was the Open Source Initiative's first general counsel and secretary, issued a statement that endorsed the new terms under which Microsoft is making its Office XML Reference Schema to developers of all types, including open source developers. Rosen is one of two lawyers whose endorsement is critical to the open source world's acceptance of what can best be described as Microsoft's most significant olive branch to date; one that apparently means that the open source community is free to develop software that supports the Redmond, WA-based company's XML-based file formats for its Office productivity suite.
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