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Stallman Unimpressed by Nokia Patent Pledge

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the stuff-to-read dept.

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.'""

8 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah.. by Godman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...and Hitler promised that he would stop after annexing the sudetenland. Appeasment and promises never work. I hope the EU doesn't give in. We've seen what happens when they (europeans) do. (Of course, we aren't talking about World War 3 here, but still, we've seen what happens)

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  2. the art of selective enforcement and rule setting by Leontes · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Previously unenforced laws suddenly being enforced has historically led to massive resentment and revolution. Some of the taxation that was collected prior to the american war for independence had been on the books for some time. Imagine what would happen in the us if police routinely started pulling people over for speeding only a few miles over the speedlimit. (provided that they, of course, removed the uncertainty from the guestimation of the speed of trave)l.

    On the other hand, reminds me a bit of the 'patriot' act. Oooh, don't worry, we'll only use it for the terrorists (which we now include people who disagree with the president).

    Lack of enforcement is a tricky tricky thing. I've always thought that regulations should represent how things work, not the way we wish they worked. Saves this kind of doublespeak from occurring.

  3. General Stallman by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The patent pledge is important: it removes the uncertainty that Nokia might find its (already) patented tech in Linux, and sue; Nokia guarantees they wouldn't. But it's mostly important to Nokia. I'm not aware of any credible evidence that any Nokia tech is actually in the kernel, so it's really more of a gesture. And a way to warn off future inclusion of their tech in kernels, by saying "we were generous before, don't exploit your friends".

    But Stallman is right about the other Nokia stance on European patents. They're bad, for Nokia like everyone else in the long run. They prevent Nokia from improving on innovation elsewhere. With a big company that can't take risks like small developers, Nokia benefits from unimpeded traffic in software. And as a hardware vendor, more software sells their products, with a protected base that can be protected by valid, traditional hardware patents.

    Stallman's also right that Nokia's "harmless" patent guarantee is more important as propaganda to mollify the Linux community, their most dangerous opponent in the EU patent debate. We should accept their guarantee on its own merits, but not grant an inch on the meritless demands to chain innovation.

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    1. Re:General Stallman by jeffkjo1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      But Stallman is right about the other Nokia stance on European patents. They're bad, for Nokia like everyone else in the long run. They prevent Nokia from improving on innovation elsewhere. With a big company that can't take risks like small developers, Nokia benefits from unimpeded traffic in software. And as a hardware vendor, more software sells their products, with a protected base that can be protected by valid, traditional hardware patents.

      Actually, they aren't bad for Nokia, or any large software company. Software patents will not stop large software companies in the list bit. When they are sued by another large software company (think Sun and IBM), they will simply sign a cross-licensing agreement.
      Software patents allow Nokia, and others, to go after smaller software companies, and force them into massive lawsuits, or sell themselves to Nokia.
      Effectively, software patents preserve bad business models.

    2. Re:General Stallman by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The longterm will see Nokia paying to participate in innovation they could have for free - the traditional model of making new learning available to everyone, without restriction, that has sustained innovation for centuries. Nokia will necessarily have a minority of monopolies on innovations, and will have to pay whatever the other monopoly holders demand for their licenses. The economics you describe help a patent holder only when 1> they have the majority of the patents, and 2> they do not have property, like hardware, that has a cost of duplication, which can be controlled with traditional (cheap and predictable) market enforcement. Neither condition applies to Nokia, so their net result is a loss. IP patents do, however, give their equity marketers something easy (if fabricated) to promote, which big companies often prefer to product development, or even product marketing.

      The whole EU government structure is still forming. That's especially evident this week, as France stops their Constitution from completion. So now is the time for people to work our influence, before the system is fully defined, and the big corporations can game it privately with their inevitable political and economic bribes/threats^Winfluence. Hopefully Europeans have learned from the US disgrace the mockery of justice that results in the market when the suppliers control its rules, and the apathetic consumers are treated like bottomless holes into which to shovel crap. With any luck, Europeans will protect their rights from these IP monopolists, and those Americans working for that same justice will get a powerful ally. Or we're all doomed - as usual.

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  4. What Stallman should do instead is by melted · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What Stallman should do instead is put together a LARGE portfolio of patents based on GNU software. I'm sure there's a ton of patentable inventions in FOSS, and I'm also sure many developers wouldn't mind patenting their stuff to protect it from being ripped off by large corporations, given that FSF holds the patent and provides a perpetual, royalty free license to whoever wants to use it for developing open source, GPL/LGPL licensed software.

    Let's face it, software patents as ridiculous as they are, are here to stay. This is why to stay in the game an organization like FSF needs a large protective patent portfolio (kinda like the one Microsoft has).

    This also creates some money making opportunities for FSF, because they could sue the most vehement opponents of FOSS software pretty much at will for infringement on FSF and its contributors' "intellectual property" and request ridiculous sums of money in damages.

  5. If Nokia really meant it... by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They would be specifically granting the Linux kernel developers a license to their patents. Or more specifically, issuing a general unlimited-use license to use the patents in any GPL software, which is a legally binding document and not just a PR promise.

    (Maybe they have done this? In which case RMS should shut up and go home, once Nokia issues such a license they can't take it back.)

    It is possible to issue such a license - A few years ago Cornell issued such a license for a few videoconferencing patents related to their CU30 algorithm, which was initially released as an open-source implementation. Basically anyone could use the patents for free if it were in software with specific licenses, but if you wanted to use them in close-source commercial software you had to pay $$$. Also, I remember someone with a number of font-related patents (Including the underlying patent behind Microsoft's ClearType technology) did something similar - issuing a free unlimited-use license for any software that met certain open-source criteria.

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  6. Mere lobbying for SW patents by redelm · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Software patents are having a tough time in the EU parlement. Nokia's move is merely an effort to remove a major objection to SW patents so they can cash in on their portfolio. RMS was actually being kind.

    I'm not against patents, nor even SW patents, for genuinely original thinking that was unlikely to be derived or released elsewhere. RSA is perhaps the best example. But many patents are far less than original or non-obvious, and that is the major problem. The US has a very bad situation (patent everything), the EU has a somewhat better but still bad situation (no SW patents).