[Noisebridge-discuss] kinect sdk from microsoft research released

[Seth David Schoen]

Jonathan Foote writes:

> @qdot on Twitter has been looking at the Kinnect SDK code license,
> looks like typical M$ lockdown BS:
> 
> "Wow. You can't even copy the #kinectsdk RUNTIMES. No redist of
> applications in full, period. Everyone has to DL SDK.
> http://j.mp/mzIs9N"
> 
> " RT @marcan42 They also have an expiration date of June 16, 2013. No
> guarantee that you'll still be able to use the SDK after that."

I'm reminded of the situation around the Emotiv EPOC SDK, where Emotiv
got mad that people wanted to develop software (for public distribution)
to work with the EPOC without getting permission from Emotiv and paying
it royalties.  I hope all computer software developers will forthrightly
reject the idea that interoperability with hardware should ever require
a vendor's permission.

Microsoft's position on this point -- at least with regard to Kinect --
seems to have mellowed out a lot because, unlike Emotiv, they appear to
have stopped saber-rattling about independent software development.  I
commend Microsoft for making some progress on that issue.  Hopefully
they will next move from not threatening independent development to
enthusiastically supporting it, and release the SDK under the MS-PL.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org>      |  No haiku patents
     http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/        |  means I've no incentive to
  FD9A6AA28193A9F03D4BF4ADC11B36DC9C7DD150  |        -- Don Marti