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Perens Dismisses Torvald's Patent Pool

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the he-should-start-a-non-profit-asap dept.

ficken writes "Open source activist Bruce Perens has dismissed as inadequate a new IP initiative backed by Linus Torvalds. The Open Source Development Labs' (OSDL) patent commons project is intended to provide patent protection to open source developers. Perens, speaking at LinuxWorld, compared the patent pool to "spitting in the wind" -because the patents it contained come from "the wrong people.""

4 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Some FUD spreading perhaps? by cc-rider-Texas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He noted open source infringes on "tens of thousands" of patents granted in the US and that companies taken to court over these would "lose some of the cases."

    I sure wish he would have given some examples of these "tens of thousands" because IMHO that is just a thrown out figure aka FUD.

    --
    If you give a liberal an enema, he'll turn transparent.
    1. Re:Some FUD spreading perhaps? by Russ+Nelson · · Score: 4, Interesting

      A patent only gives you the legal right to sue somebody. It doesn't give you the resources to succeed in your suit. Nor does bringing suit prevent the plaintiff from implementing a work-around for the patent. Look at what Keith Packard did with his font renderer. It avoids Apple's TrueType patent by rendering the font in a non-infringing manner.

      Patent infringement isn't a serious problem for open source projects. It might be a problem for open source companies, but that's their problem.
      -russ

      --
      Don't piss off The Angry Economist
  2. Re:Stop the infighting by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 5, Interesting


    I agree.

    Perens is simply keeping his name in the press.

    While some of his remarks may be partially correct - namely, that it's not terribly useful to have a patent portfolio built from people who already support OSS - his primary mission here is simply to denigrate some useful work.

    Where are his solutions to the problem? I see lots of criticism and no ideas from him.

    Eben Moglen, at LinuxWorld this past week, outlined a program involving not merely the Patent Commons Project, but attempts to change patent laws and to actually reverse patents that are of particular threat to OSS.

    Perens concentrates only on the Patent Commons Project, and ignores the rest. This proves his only motive is to start a flame war.

    Nothing like handing Microsoft some talking points, Bruce. Way to go.

    --
    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  3. Re:Stop the infighting by BillyBlaze · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe it's time some large company does launch a patent missile. Frankly I'd prefer a patent winter to what we have now. All the fallout might convince Joe Public to oppose software patents.