Microsoft might claim that the Internet belongs to them…

“Merit Network’s Larry Blunk said that having a quick squint at Microsoft’s Royalty Free Protocol License Agreement, the software colossus seemed to be suddenly claiming IP rights to many vital Internet protocols.

Blunk said that Microsoft is claiming some form of IP rights over “a total of 130 protocols which Microsoft is offering for licence.”
Many of the listed protocols are [IETF] RFC [request for comment] documents, including but not limited to the core TCP/IP v4 and TCP/IP v6 protocol specifications,” he said.

Some of the RFC protocols include the TCP/IP protocols and the DNS (Domain Name System), are key bits of the Internet’s network infrastructure.”

[via theinquirer]