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IBM And Sony Form Linux Alliance
An anonymous reader writes "CNN is reporting that IBM, Sony, and Philips are creating a Linux adoption group. Called the 'Open Invention Network', it is intended to protect vendors and customers from patent royalty fees while using OSS." From the article: "Patents owned by OIN will be available without payment of royalties to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against others who have signed a license with OIN, when using certain Linux-related software. Traditionally, patents have been pursued for two primary reasons -- to defend one's own intellectual property or for barter to trade in cross-licensing agreements to gain access to other companies' patents. OIN represents a new form of cross-licensing that its backers say could spur innovation. "
Now Sony can make a Linux rootkit too!
Just "gittin-r-done," day after day.
This certainly seems like a good idea, but am I the only one that thinks that seeing Sony in this list is rather out of character, especially given Sony's recent actions?
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
The idea of an anti-patent patent trust is as old as the hills, but to see this much corporate clout behind it was unthinkable not five years ago. It feels like there's been a sea-change and I like it. More important than helping IBM and Sony fight Microsoft, if this idea gained momentum it could seriously roll back a lot of the current technical stagnation on account of software/algorithm patents.
Color me cautiously hopeful.
--Ryv
Yep. It's the next best thing to abolishing patents altogether for spurring innovation. And it's the furthest they can get in that area. Noone can abolish any laws in a democracy when there is a rich lobby that depends on them.
Just because I can imagine doing a hippopotamus, doesn't mean I'd like to do it.
These three companies make their money in services and hardware-- ie. not software. I can't possibly imagine Microsoft joining given this. It would be like Microsoft and Oracle starting a group which would give out free hardware, and use the Open source community for free services (obviously hard to do). These hardware and service companies would want nothing to do with it.
Sony just wants IBM's Linux knowledge to develop a better rootkit for their CDs.
They will provide "Root Kits" for any operating system!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
Software patents are not acceptable, these companies and others pushing for a stable ABI (binary drivers) are attempting to co-opt linux. To accept this patent pledge we would first have to accept that software patents are acceptable, they are not. If these companies are not prepared to mount legal challenges to patentability of software, this is at best an empty and worthless gesture, at worst an attempt to undermine copyright protection for software authors.
My $699 Linux license protects me from things like GPL lawsuits, acts of God, and robot attacks. It sounds a bit steep at first, but SCO assures me it was money well spent!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Oops, sorry. I seem to have mis-spelled "Fuck you Sony, you rootkit spreading scum suckers". The keys are right next to each other.
It may seem to the public like they are one big entity, but in reality they are a huge company with many opinions within. This is really true of any organization. Even within our own department here there are huge disparities of attitudes. Sometimes a project will arise that only needs one programmer and they get free reign on how to do things. Invariably they will write it in their favorite language on their favorite platform. If an outside person were to see my programs they would think "wow, they really have a commitment to open source". Then later, "wow, a program in VB? This seems out of character for them".
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
Aren't we suppose to be hating Sony now?
(Go ahead and mod redundant, just like you did the FIRST POST that made this joke)
Patents owned by OIN will be available without payment of royalties to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert (my emphasis) its patents against others who have signed a license with OIN, when using certain Linux-related software.
... would OIN be willing to counter-sue (backed up with its patent portfolio) say an 800 pound gorilla who find Linux violating some patents and sues linux users.
That doesn't seem to much sense so here's an example scenario:
- MSFT decides Linux kernel violates some of their patents.
- Sues some-non-commercial-linux-distro users.
So, would OIN be willing to assert its patents against MSFT?
-ankur
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
--Sun-tzu
I think in this case Sony sees a threat from Microsoft, and wants to gang up as much as possible. For Sony, DRM and patents are largely orthogonal. DRM has to do with copyright and the enforcement mechanism is primarily the DMCA.
I think it's worth noting that if Sony had to choose between ditching DRM and protection from death by patent litigation, it would choose the former. Content, especially music, just isn't as big a business as consumer electronics.
Either way, you can still hate Sony if it suits you. It's a pretty big company, it's probably OK to like one division and hate the other.
The hive mind has spoken.
Does that mean tux can yell out: LINUX ALLIANCE ASSSSEEEEEMBLEEE and have big blue and sony fly from the sky to fight crime?
Calm down people, its a religion not an operating system.
OPEN INVENTION NETWORK FORMED TO PROMOTE LINUX
AND SPUR INNOVATION GLOBALLY THROUGH ACCESS TO KEY PATENTS
- - -
Investors Include IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony
New York (November 10, 2005) - Open Invention Network (OIN), a company that has and will acquire patents and offer them royalty-free to promote Linux and spur innovation globally, was launched today with financial support from IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony. The company, believed to be the first of its kind, is creating a new model where patents are openly shared in a collaborative environment and used to facilitate the advancement of applications for, and components of, the Linux operating system.
"Open collaboration is critical for driving innovation, which fuels global economic growth. Impediments to collaboration on the Linux operating system seriously jeopardize innovation. A new model of intellectual property management for Linux must be established to maintain advances in software innovation - regardless of the size or type of business or organization," said Jerry Rosenthal, chief executive officer at Open Invention Network. The company will foster an open, collaborative environment that stimulates advances in Linux - helping ensure the continuation of global innovation that has benefited software vendors, customers, emerging markets and investors, among others.
Patents owned by Open Invention Network will be available on a royalty-free basis to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux operating system or certain Linux-related applications.
Open Invention Network believes that creating a new system to manage and ensure access to key patents for the Linux operating system will have a significant economic impact. According to International Data Corporation, the worldwide Linux businessis expected to grow 25.9 percent annually, doubling from $20 billion in 2005 to more than $40 billion in 2008.
"Open Invention Network is not focused on income or profit generation with our patents, but on using them to promote a positive, fertile ecosystem for the Linux operating system and to drive innovation and choice into the marketplace," said Mr. Rosenthal. "We intend to spur innovation in IT and across industries by helping software developers focus on what they do best - developing great Linux-related software with greater assurance about intellectual property issues."
-more-
Among Open Invention Network's initial patent holdings is a set of business-to-business electronic commerce patents that were purchased from Commerce One by JGR, a subsidiary of Novell.
For more information go to www.openinventionnetwork.com
Investor Statements
IBM
"The formation of Open Invention Network signals a growing movement where companies today are looking beyond their own organizational boundaries," said Jim Stallings, vice president of intellectual property and open standards at IBM. "They are strategically sharing their intellectual property and building broader industry partnerships in order to accelerate innovation and drive new economic growth."
Novell
"We are proud to be a founding member of the Open Invention Network,"said Jack Messman, CEO of Novell."While Novell has been a major contributor to the open source community and has shown its commitment to promoting and fostering the adoption of open source and open standards, this initiative raises our leadership to the highest level. With this new initiative, users of open source software will have access to a broad set of technologies that will help foster an even more robust community of developers, customers, business partners and investors. This is a breakthrough idea whose time has come."
Philips
"Philips is actively involved in the creation and funding of Open Invention Network because we believe that OIN will make the Linux platform more attractive for users. This will stimulate developers to focus their resources on creating
what would happen if sony (or any other company, sony just taken by example) suddenly decides it was a bad idea to begin with and leaves this organisation?
will they be able to sue all the projects that made use of sony patents or will the patents used during the period a company was member stay 'free of use'?
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Yes, the name is Sony, but this is an entirely different branch of Sony. Sony BMG is the one who released the rootkit-like CDs.
Novell and Red Hat are also founding members of Open Invension Network. I'm not sure about Red Hat but I know that Novell has a slew of valuable patents that would help prevent lawsuits. This is really neat. As more companies become members of the network, the stronger open source will be - legally. This is worst case scenario for companies like Microsoft. For example, would Microsoft shy away from launching a patent infringement battle against red-hat? I don't think they would flinch. But would they launch the same battle against the combined patent portfolio of IBM/Sony/Phyllips/Novell/Red-Hat?
Content sony only cares about pushing its wares but so does hardware sony. Hardware sony does not want people to not buy their hardware because it is to crippled while content sony does not want people to use their hardware to duplicate their content.
Then you got japan sony coming from a slightly different culture then the american "lets sue" sony.
But what I think is at the heart of this is the Sony that does not want to be owned by Microsoft. While the internet tv might not have happened I am sure there are people at sony that would dearly love the idea of them producing the "next pc". It is the only possibly explanation for Linux on the playstation sold by sony itself. They can't make a single cent profit on it. So why do it if not for learning wether it can be done?
Might it someday be possible to buy in the store a non-ms computer? Worse perhaps a computer that is not like today's pc's at all but far closer to say, oh a mobile phone?
MS has really screwed over every single company it has dealt with and the IBM Sony's of this world would dearly like to see a future were MS can't dictate so many terms.
It is basic economy. When your supplier controls you you are not in control. At the moment it is MS that control the PC and PC makers like sony don't like that.
So it is not out of character at all. Sony is just trying to get maximum profit. MS being toned down a bit means that sony can better dictate the terms, the terms probably being "we want more cash".
Simple really.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
"having nothing to do with someone because their brother did something you don't like" sounds like a recipe for a long term feud if the people are popular enough.
After a few centuries, the people "having nothing to do with someone" are long dead but the feud remains. I know that the French are still around but for the life of me I can't figure out why. And I'm originally a Quebecois, a French speaker.
Human memory runs broad, not deep. That's why I don't trust it. Its too easy to forget exactly why anything.
That's why there are all those statutes and jurisprudence and "the rule of law." This can only work if the laws are written down (not carved on your back at the whim of some blood thirsty uber-lord and his sons [for some reasons its always sons. The girls in the family really take it in the shorts.)
This is another reason a distrust anything written by Microsoft. NONE of the documents originally produced my M$ Word 1.0 are still legible. But the ones I wrote in WordPerfect can still be opened and can be read in WordPerfect. (Ahhh the advantages of a persistent [and maybe open] document file format.)
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Would you accept that the US of A is a plutocratic/democratic republic?
I'd say that's a fair assessment--Americans form governments through elections (democratic process) that are heavilly influenced by money--especially coporate money (a plutocracy). The only real way to restrict the (usually corruptive) influence of wealth in government is through an informed, involved electorate. Unfortunately the American electorate is neither.
Not so sure about Canada, which is also in America.
As a Canadian I can tell you that the same is very true here, though in slightly different ways. In the US, those critical of the government point to the heavy influence the oil industry has in Washington. In Canada, that influence is provided by the information/entertainment industry. Besides having the govenrment-owned CBC network, the two major privately-owned canadian networks/media conglomerates (Bell-Sympatico-CTV and Global) are owned and run by very major supporters of the governing Liberal party (financially and through direct political involvement). I've found that despite being government owned and obviously socialist editorially that the CBC is probably a bit more critical/objective in its stories about the government even though the government owns it.
In Quebec in particular, most advertising agencies providing services to the government have been major donors to the Liberal party and have provided staff--on paid company time--to "volunteer" for Liberal campaigns. This behaviour goes quite a bit beyond even the deplorable bid-selection behaviour of the previous Mulroney government. If the uninformed have any doubts about the influence that the media and (dirty) money have on Canadian politics, take some time to look at the Gomery Inquiry report. Lobby money certainly does run Canada and the Canadian electorate is even less involved than their American counterparts.
As far as this new patent initiative by these major corporations, it is merely fortunate that they are acting in the best interests of consumers and innovation. We need a "movement" involved in patents equivalent to what GNU provides for copyright. Given the higher barrier to entry in the patent system it was much less likely to happen based on the efforts of a few dedicated individuals, and given the nature of our governments, even less likely that they would spearhead such an initiative.