Microsoft removes intellectual property rights to Web services specs

Some folks thought Christmas (Chanukah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Solstice - pick your winter gift-giving holiday) came early while others were willing to wager that Hades was about to bid for the winter Olympics. And it was all because of something Microsoft did. Imagine that!

Last week, during the Digital ID World conference, Microsoft delivered what it's calling the "Open Specification Promise," an irrevocable covenant not to enforce any intellectual property rights (patents and copyrights) for 35-plus Web services specifications including SOAP, WSDL, and all of the advanced Web Services specifications (i.e., WS-*) (Read the Network World story on this announcement).

Specifically enumerated specs are (and I don't purport to understand all of them!):

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Some folks thought Christmas (Chanukah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Solstice - pick your winter gift-giving holiday) came early while others were willing to wager that Hades was about to bid for the winter Olympics. And it was all because of something Microsoft did. Imagine that!

Last week, during the Digital ID World conference, Microsoft delivered what it's calling the "Open Specification Promise," an irrevocable covenant not to enforce any intellectual property rights (patents and copyrights) for 35-plus Web services specifications including SOAP, WSDL, and all of the advanced Web Services specifications (i.e., WS-*) (Read the Network World story on this announcement).

Specifically enumerated specs are (and I don't purport to understand all of them!):

Remote Shell Web Services Protocol
WS-I Basic Profile
SOAP
WS-Management
SOAP 1.1 Binding for MTOM 1.0
WS-Management Catalog
SOAP MTOM / XOP
WS-MetadataExchange
SOAP-over-UDP
WS-Policy
Web Single Sign-On Interoperability Profile
WS-PolicyAttachment
Web Single Sign-On Metadata Exchange Protocol
WS-ReliableMessaging
WS-Addressing
WS-RM Policy
WS-AtomicTransaction
WS-SecureConversation
WS-BusinessActivity
WS-Security: Kerberos Binding
WS-Coordination
WS-Security: Kerberos Token Profile
WS-Discovery
WS-Security: Rights Expression Language (REL) Token Profile
WSDL
WS-Security: SAML Token profile
WSDL 1.1 Binding Extension for SOAP 1.2
WS-Security: SOAP Message Security
WS-Enumeration
WS-Security: UsernameToken Profile
WS-Eventing
WS-Security: X.509 Certificate Token Profile
WS-Federation
WS-SecurityPolicy
WS-Federation Active Requestor Profile
WS-Transfer
WS-Federation Passive Requestor Profile
WS-Trust

The promise applies to all versions of these specifications - previous versions, current versions and future versions! You can use them without fear that some lawyer will serve you with a cease and desist letter. You can build applications that rely on these as underlying services.

It's not the same as open source; you can't disassemble these things and use parts to build something else, and but you can use the services and protocols in their entirety as building blocks for useful services and applications. More importantly, for many of you, third party software houses can also use them to build new services and apps that cooperate and even compete with Microsoft's own offerings. As former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki is fond of saying, "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom," in this case all fertilized by Microsoft intellectual property!

For more about Microsoft Open Specification Promise, see its FAQ.

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