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IP Insurance For Software

Posted by michael on from the solutions-in-search-of-a-problem dept.

isn't my name writes "We all know that OSRM has come out to offer insurance against intellectual property claims for open source software. Recently, we've seen IBM open up 500 patents and SUN up the ante with 1600. But all of these moves are targeted at F/OSS software. There's an article at IPW that looks at the state of patent insurance for non-F/OSS."

7 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Death to FOSS? by sirgallihad · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dosen't anyone suspect that these patent releases could be somehow used against FOSS, in some way? I mean, even though IBM and Sun seem to like it now, who knows what dastardly plans lie just out of sight?

  2. Not even all open source software by vladd_rom · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sun released the patents only under their Creative OSI-approved license. The rest of the open source software, including GNU-based or MPL-based, is still in the air.

    This creates the precedent to have open source GNU-based programs that violate the patents and Creative-based programs that are perfectly legal.

    It certainly seems like a smart thing to do from Sun's point of view (trying to attract open source developers to their license scheme by giving access to software patents).

  3. SUN is declaring war on the GPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They don't really care about open source.

    If you listen to their PR people they claim that "the whole Linux thing" "wouldn't have happened" if they'd open soured Solaris ten years ago; they try to pretend that the Solaris open source thing is just something they should have done a long time ago, and Solaris will soon get all the benefits of open source community Linux has. As if open source is some kind of magical pixie dust that you sprinkle on software and bam! It's successful!

    In reality what is happening is that the GNU operating environment and the Linux operating system beat Sun in the marketplace fair and square-- not because of some "open source" magical pixie dust, but because it's a better product-- and Sun knows this.

    The reason Microsoft can never beat Linux is because they believe they're competing with RedHat when in truth they are competing with the GPL. You can't compete with the body of GPLed software the way you compete with a company; it isn't a single organization, it's millions of autonomous people working in concert. Knock out Redhat, something indistinguishable will rise up to take its place.

    Sun has finally figured out how to compete with this. Instead of targeting a company, they've declared war on the GPL itself. For awhile they did quite a lot of laying groundwork by running around telling people that GPL is full of IP flaws and in the future you'll need patents to operate in the software industry. Now they're trying to push out a huge body of work under an open source license which has no particular distinguishing features except that it's incompatible with the GPL, and offered as candy all these patents to "open source projects" while conspicuously not offering any sort of protection to the GPL. Sun recognizes that the threat to them at this point isn't Linux the software program, it's the community; and that as long as the community remains solid, directed and internally compatible, they can't defeat it. So they're trying to splinter the community. And this may work.

    1. Re:SUN is declaring war on the GPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well that's the thing. RMS's whole thing about "GNU is the OS, Linux is just the kernel" is mostly bullshit but there is a kernel of truth in it. Linus Tourvalds did some great things but he isn't wholly responsible; to an extent there was a demand there for a GPL operating system, a void waiting to be filled, and Linus filled it.

      I mean there's a reason why Linux became popular, not BSD or OS/2, and I don't think it's just timing and the BSD lawsuit. It's just that the GPL's development model is a very powerful one; it allows companies to approach and make use of Linux for greedy purposes while, thanks to the use of the GPL rather than BSD license Linux still gets something out of it in the deal. Sun might have made source available in 1985 or made Solaris available to hobbyists but they probably wouldn't have selected that particular license-- they'd have probably selected a license which serves Sun, which would have meant either people would get the opportunity to get greedy and keep their modifications, or Sun would have gotten greedy and restricted the extent to which you could use and sell solaris for whatever hardware and situation you like. The GPL, meanwhile, serves GPLed software, and we're all just along for the ride. Between that and the fact that GNU's toolchain is good enough it would have become the most standard one for UNIX by now no matter the kernel, the position Linux now holds could have been taken by any number of things. Linus was just the one who stepped forward.

      Basically if Linux had not existed it would have been necessary for us to invent it.

  4. Re:The culprit = The USPTO by Zocalo · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I'm sure that comment will get me flamed by all the patent-lawyers reading this.

    Actually, since you singled out the USPTO, probably not as other patent offices look down upon the USPTO as something of a joke. The biggest problem with the USPTO is that its staff get paid a bonus for approving a patent application instead of finding prior art which would render it invalid. Yup, you read that right. Is it any wonder that they seem to approve just about every patent they see, and then leave it to the IP lawyers to resolve any disputes in court?

    I don't think that there is anything wrong with the idea of patents in general, provided that they are only granted when there is due cause. The current situation is absurd, as is clearly illusatrated by this report at The Economist in which they conclude that over 30% of patents are duplicates of other works, and thus invalid. They don't see it getting any better as the Chinese, Indians and others become more active in western markets either.

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  5. Copyright insurance as well? by tepples · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So software developers and publishers are able to purchase insurance against certain software patent infringements, and for purposes of this comment, we'll assume that's all well and good.

    Thing is, it would appear that songwriters and music publishers would need an analogous form of insurance against copyright infringement claims, given that there exist a finite number of distinct melodies in the Western musical scale, and incumbent publishers like to sue startups for subconscious copying ( Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music ). Has any company announced plans to offer this kind of insurance?

  6. Zealots need not apply by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How about a little open-mindedness?

    > In reality what is happening is that the GNU
    > operating environment and the Linux operating
    > system beat Sun in the marketplace fair and
    > square-- not because of some "open source" magical
    > pixie dust, but because it's a better product--
    > and Sun knows this.

    As a satan worshipping Sun engineer, I'd like to express my disagreement with this statement. We do not "know" that Linux is a better product. In fact, we most certainly do "know that Solaris is a better product than Linux". In many many arenas. Though unfortunately not all.

    Let me tell you this as a Sun employee: I'm disappointed with our weak management who seem middle aged, middle of the road policies, and *average*, I'm sick of the pathetic marketing department (todo: must check to see if there is actually a marketing dept in org chart) who fail to get the message out about what *I know* is the best OS available today.

    I'm disappointed in that because I do care. We build good stuff and I'm proud of that. Foolish as I may be, I believe that this is a company with integrity, honour, exceptional engineers and quality products.

    I hope you some of the more open minded /. readers try s10 and recognise that while it may not better Linux in all markets, it is better in many. The day I'm happy running performant Solaris on my old x86 desktop and laptop here at home, that's when I'll stop using linux. Til then I'll use what's best for each job, including posting this from Windows because I need to grab the photos off my camera.

    So any zealots still with me... how many cpus does Linux scale to?