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Torvalds Says Linux IP Is Sound

Posted by timothy on from the dear-darl-let's-call-him dept.

An anonymous reader submits: "In an interview with CRN, Linus Torvalds says he's confident there won't be any IP problems discovered in Linux. In fact, Torvalds, says he was extra careful with issues like the IBM Read Copy Update code."

6 of 336 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Linus regard for customers by ePhil_One · · Score: 4, Informative
    In nutshell, this comment shows perfectly why Linux will never succeed in the mass market. It is built by developers...for developers. The end users are irrelevant.

    Obviously you don't understand Linus's role in all this. Linus' customers ARE developers. Joe sixpack doesn't go download the latest kernel and install, he goes and picks up RedHat/Debian/Gentoo/Slackware/etc... from CompUSA. RedHat/Debian/Gentoo/Slackware/etc... are Linus's customers, they are the ones that deal with him

    --
    You are in a maze of twisted little posts, all alike.
  2. Re:Caught My Attention by penisburd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Patents can be used in GPL code, AFAIK, as long as the owner of said patent allows it. Of course, it is always good to be cautious here because if IBM decided to yank the license for their patent, a lot of people are affected, so they have to get strict licensing terms that prevents that from happeneing.

  3. Re:Caught My Attention by rossifer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because the GPL specifically discusses patent licensing. In section 7, it states that if you can't get a royalty free license to the relevant patents then the GPL can't be applied.

    Which is meant to imply that (in this case) if IBM is willing to license the relevant patents to GPL licencees without royalty then it can hold those patents (and charge others for the use of them for non-GPL'd applications) and GPL code based on those patents. Which IBM is doing.

    Regards,
    Ross

  4. Re:Linus regard for customers by manvantaradude · · Score: 4, Informative
    In nutshell, this comment shows perfectly why Linux will never succeed in the mass market

    Wrong. Linus works on the Linux kernel. The people that package various distributions worry about the customers they attempt to serve. Most folks that enjoy using Linux would laugh with Linus on this one.

  5. Re:Caught My Attention by steveha · · Score: 4, Informative

    [IBM] can hold those patents (and charge others for the use of them for non-GPL'd applications) and GPL code based on those patents.

    Yes, exactly correct. This is why Linux has RCU and BSD doesn't. IBM is willing to license the patents for free for GPL code, but they still want to charge license fees for use in proprietary code.

    Releasing something under BSD is effectively placing it in the public domain.

    By the way, you sometimes see people claiming that "if there weren't any copyrights there would be no need for GPL" or some such. Not so. GPL uses copyright law to prevent people from taking free projects proprietary; BSD lets you do anything you want, including taking a free project, hacking it up slightly, and releasing it as a proprietary product.

    steveha

    --
    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
  6. Re:Say what? by Bootsy+Collins · · Score: 4, Informative

    Oh brother, not this again.

    Trade secrets, copyrights, and patents, are three different things, covered by three different sets of legislation and case law, and typically suggest three different approaches for relevant IP management. Most of Linus' comments in the article are about copyright. The LKML entry you reproduce is about patents. Patent issues have nothing to do with the dispute over RCU.