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JBoss Offers Lawsuit Indemnification

Posted by simoniker on from the protected-shielded-sorted- dept.

prostoalex writes "JBoss Group offered its customers indemnification from potential legal problems related to patent violations and copyright lawsuits. According to Bob Bickel, JBoss VP, the move is intended to give customers more peace of mind when deciding whether to go with open-source software." The article also mentions Jboss' legal challenge to Apache Geronimo, of which Bickel said "...the letter to the Apache Software Foundation was never intended to be made public and said the conflict has been blown out of proportion."

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just like SCO! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    This whole "Pay us and you won't be sued" thing sure sounds like white-collar extortion to me.

    Slow down and read it again.

    They aren't charging anything for idemnification. Even if they did, it wouldn't be anything remotely like SCO. SCO is the one doing the suing. Companies like IBM and HP are protecting their customers from SCO. A more apt analogy would compare JBoss to IBM or HP in this case.

  2. Re:Just like SCO! by molarmass192 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Did you read the article??? They're not threatening to sue anybody. They're offering to indemnify their customers in the event that JBoss code is found to to infringe on patents or copyrights. They're doing to same thing HP did with it's Linux customers here. If customers want it, it's available. JBoss isn't the one who'd be doing the suing.

    --

    Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
  3. Re:Empty offers.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This isn't about buying anything. They are saying that if somebody comes along and sues them over copyright or patent issues the end user will not be held liable. This is the same thing that IBM is doing with SCO. Obviously they are only doing this for their customers (who are paying for a service contract).

  4. RTFA bois by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
    Only 50-100 commercial customers are 'covered' by this. Anyone else who has simply downloaded JBoss and uses it (which is the vast majority of their 'user base') is still screwed if the reason for this actually comes to pass.

    IOW, if you want to be 'indemnified' then you have to buy JBoss, which is kinda dumb since it's supposed to be 'free'. Heh. Yay open source!

  5. Look at the facts: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    The "i spilled hot coffee on my lap waa waa" suit sounds frivolous until you look at the facts:

    McFact #1: The coffee the lady bought was over 270 degrees. That is dangerous.

    McFact #2: McDonald's had received about 17 complaints over the years about hot coffee. They ignored the complaints.

    McFact #3: The woman who spilled the coffee initially tried to settle out of court for a reasonable 30 million. McDonald's ignored her.

    McFact #4: The woman received 3rd degree burns over much of her body.