Microsoft Word ruling upheld, sale prohi

[brainwave]

Office workers of America, enjoy your Christmas break. Because come the new year, things could get a little hairy around the office. Microsoft Word is now scheduled to be prohibited from sale beginning January 11, 2010. That's less than three weeks away.

If you don't understand, you might have simply missed this story, or dismissed it as something that Microsoft would ultimately use its considerable clout to have pushed under a legal rug.

But it's no joke. In August of this year, a court sided with a small Canadian company called i4i that holds a 1998 patent on the way the XML language is implemented, finding that Microsoft was in violation of that patent. The result: Microsoft was told to license the code in question from i4i or reprogram it, or else Microsoft Word would have to be removed from sale in the market. The original ruling gave Microsoft until October to get its legal affairs in order, but appeals pushed that out a bit.

Now a federal court has upheld that original ruling -- plus a fat, $290 million judgment against the company -- imposing the new January 11 D-Day on the matter. Microsoft Word and Microsoft Office will both be barred from sale as of that date -- though naturally you'll still be able to use copies of Word and Office that you already own, and Microsoft will be allowed to keep supporting those copies.

Unless Microsoft comes up with a technical workaround very quickly, things are going to get extremely dicey in the computer world, and fast. Not only will retail outlets selling shrinkwrapped copies of the software be affected, computer manufacturers (who complained loudly about this injunction when it was announced) who bundle Word and Office on the computers they sell will also be seriously impacted by the ruling.

There's always a chance things will change as the January 11 deadline approaches -- an 11th hour deal with i4i is a strong possibility -- but if your company requires Word or Office to keep operations running, it might not be a bad idea to stock up on a few extra copies now.

[Lrrp]

LOL Have you ever paid for MS office?????

[djskitzy]

or USED it????

[stumpy]

I fucked up. MS OFFICE 2000 came with a build I bought.

I usd it for about 3 days and then wiped my HD and started again.

[aion_z]

For the longest time I used Wordperfect.

[salempc]

Don't really need it anyway...

[chad5414]

i dont know anybody that pays for it or has ever paid

[MASTERV]

Working for the Government that is behind the times by years spares me from caring about such shananigans.

[blackspy]

All of my clients and various business contacts (mainly government) use it. It is a valuable tool. From word, to excel and access I can't really imagine not having a need for it.

Outside the office I really don't have much use for it one way or the other. Though, I do use outlook for mail and stuff since it's easier to keep in sync with work that way.

[WolfenUWG]

Oh no! People may actually have to think for themselves... it's not like there aren't alternatives available. Maybe Google Docs and OpenOffice will finally get a fair chance in corporate amerika.

[blackspy]

this, or Microsoft will strip the feature in question from Word and implement something different.

...the injunction only applies to copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Microsoft Office 2007 sold after Jan. 11 of next year,...

Therefore, we expect to have copies of Microsoft Word 2007 and Office 2007, with this feature removed, available for U.S. sale and distribution by the injunction date. In addition, the beta versions of Microsoft Word 2010 and Microsoft Office 2010, which are available now for downloading, do not contain the technology covered by the injunction." Source

Nothing will change.

[Monkey]

we tried open office at our place, and lets just be nice and say it didnt work out. Not saying it's a bad product, just failed for our applications

[backroom]

MS forces activation of Office.
They will remove xml services during activation.
Done.

[Giggles]

I think we should ask Dickanderson see what he has to say about this.... just an idea. ooops do I use it well? i'll never tell, heeeee