I’ve described before that one of threat hangs over any standards actvity is the stick-up, i.e. that at some point down the road, after everybody is locked-in, a patent holder shows up at the party and demands that we all fork royality a payment.

Here is a fine example. Microsoft has decided to start charging a toll on many of those little memory cards people stick into cameras. The folks that designed that standard screwed up. There were plenty of open standard proven alternatives. It was obvious that the designs were encumbered by Microsoft IP. Fools.

But, more importantly is a story that people thinking about adopting the WS protocol stack or sticking Window’s CE .Net into their appliances should be very careful to think thru. Do you really want to pay a milli-cent tarrif on ever transaction your organization does a few years down the road?