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*We* did?

You only bother to show up when your products are featured here, Miguel.

Edited 2008-05-15 23:43 UTC

I didn't ;-).

The above is the situation I'm afraid Miguel. The RAND (and zero cost) licensing is only covered for as long as the specifications are ECMA standards. Microsoft can rock the boat to get it revoked at any time, and the only recourse the ECMA has is to cancel the standard. Microsoft probably won't do this and will just stop contributing, but the thing is, they can. The ECMA provide you with no protection at all in these matters. You implement at your own risk. The ECMA also doesn't stop patents being held now or acquired in the future on their standards, just that they can be licensed accordingly. Read the FAQ on the ECMA's web site regarding this issue. I've looked everywhere to try and find that this isn't the case, as I got piqued by it in the past, but it is.

http://www.ecma-international.org/memento/codeofconduct.htm
http://www.ecma-international.org/memento/guidance.htm

This is why there was some commotion some while back, as I understand it, to try and guarantee that the RAND and zero cost licensing is irrevocable. No such guarantee has been forthcoming.

I hate patents and all this stuff as much as the next person, and I think you should just be able to ignore them, but is this really a web worth bothering with for open source developers? You do see what Microsoft is doing here don't you? They're trying to make the murky issue of whether you're covered by a software patent more certain where what they see as their 'intellectual property' is concerned.

Good luck.