Stallman Unimpressed by Nokia Patent Pledge

Joe Barr writes "NewsForge is running a commentary by Richard Stallman on the recent PR blitz by Nokia concerning their promise not to enforce patent claims against the Linux kernel project. Stallman's take? "In effect, Nokia is lobbying the European Union to give Nokia and many others a new kind of weapon to shoot at software authors and users with--and telling the legislators, 'Don't worry, it's safe to let private armies carry these guns, because we promise that our gunmen won't shoot anyone in that building.'""

Comments

Nokia Offers Patents to Linux Kernel

[anandpur]

Some details at GROKLAW http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200505251 80125237
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200505301 04251332&mode=print

Re:Terrible analogy

[Wudbaer]

A weapon doesn't have to be a gun. Patents are weapons in a struggle for economic dominance, both between companies, between countries and between systems (as in the traditionally closed-IP-driven industries vs. the Open Source movement). Therefore the analogy is quite valid (and much better than most analogies found on Slashdot).

Alan Cox

[Conan32]

Alan Cox, the famous linux kernel guru, also had a comment on this matter a couple of days ago:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=150685&cid=126 38576

Re:[OT] South Korean speed cameras

[caluml]

cars would suddenly slow down at odd spots in the road. They would then accelerate like mad a quarter mile later

Imagine, if you will, a fiendish system that records your number plate and time at the start of your journey, and records the time when you arrive at your destination. If you have done the 120 miles between London and Bristol in anything less than the time it would take at 70mph, that means you've been speeding.
Only you don't have to imagine it. It's here.

Re:And not to be outdone...

[Arker]

A cross-compiler, and an editor on the system running the cross-compiler, and a shell on the system running the editor and the cross-compiler... see a pattern here?

Fact is, Stallman set out many years ago to make a Free OS. He worked hard on it, both coding himself, and getting others to help with it. He drove this idea for years. All that was lacking was a kernel, and that was being worked on. But Linus finished his kernel first, and Stallmans dream was now reality - a complete Free OS now available. Can you blame him for wanting a little credit? Can you blame him for wanting people using the OS he worked so hard for so many years to create to have a clue where it came from?