The Microsoft Open Specification Promise (or OSP), is a promise by Microsoft, published in September 2006, to not assert legal rights over certain Microsoft patents on implementations of an included list of technologies.
The OSP is a Covenant Not to Sue and an example of Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms for the patents in question.
The OSP licensing covers any use and any implementations of an appended list of covered specifications. It is limited for implementations to the extent that they conform to those specifications. This allows for conformance to be partial and does not require the conformance to be perfect.
Read more about Microsoft Open Specification Promise: Compatibility With Open Source Licensing
Famous quotes containing the words open and/or promise:
“Who shall forbid a wise skepticism, seeing that there is no practical question on which any thing more than an approximate solution can be had? Is not marriage an open question, when it is alleged, from the beginning of the world, that such as are in the institution wish to get out, and such as are out wish to get in?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Legislators or revolutionaries who promise equality coupled with freedom are either phantasts or charlatans.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)