Alan Cox on Patent Law and GPLv3

tykev writes "Linux kernel guru Alan Cox talks about kernel features, cooperation with hardware vendors, and software patents. From the interview: 'I don't think [Microsoft's patent threats] are the biggest danger. As Microsoft has been finding out recently it is the patent trolls, and organisations with buried patents in interesting areas that are the biggest threat in the USA. The real answer to that problem, however, is to pull the USA back into line with the majority of the world which simply does not recognize patents on software but respects them as literary works subject to copyright law.'"

Comments

butt-slut fever!

[Asshat_Nazi]

suck it niggers!!

:^(|)

Re:butt-slut fever!

[HermMunster]

Alan Cox is full of shit. Of course the biggest threat is Microsoft. It always has been. Just because Microsoft has been threatened by patent trolls (which actually happen to be an entity with products). Microsoft is the absolute most threatening entity in the software industry regardless of the cost to them. You don't deflect the issue off Microsoft. You put it squarely on Microsoft. If the patent trolls didn't exist we'd still be in the same situation. Microsoft would still own patents and would still be threatening. The Linux Kernel Guru needs to go back and start guru'ing his kernel and stop telling us what is good or bad in the industry from the stand point of patents.

Any break you give Microsoft that is more for it to break you with its monopoly. Get rid of all patents and you'd still have the same problem, and that'd be Microsoft is a monopoly using that monopolistic power to break other companies in the industry.

Frankly, Microsoft has blatantly stolen IP from other companies and has been sued over and over for doing so. They have made suing over IP financially rewarding. Had they simply licensed the technology we'd not be in this situation. We couldn't possibly be. Pay them a just royalty instead of allowing them to beat your door down with lawsuits.

You give no quarter to Microsoft. It can't happen. You can't let up. You defend your IP and you leave it at that. Do not try to defend Microsoft. They have been thieving for a long time and they have been getting caught and now it is time for them to pay up. Yes we have to pay up in the long run because the patent trolls are raking in the treasure but if it wasn't for Microsoft stealing it and causing the lawsuits to begin with there's be a more reasonable and equitable royalty system which most could deal with.

I don't agree that patents are not necessary but the rules governing patents need to be much stricter. Or rather more open to tests of prior art and obviousness.

Don't kid yourself. This issue is firmly Microsoft. Microsoft is simply using patent trolls as an excuse to make their lives easier, with no intent of making our lives easier. Microsoft does nothing to benefit the industry. They do whatever it is to benefit their monopoly. They'll do anything to maintain it and to eek every cent out of us and the consumer. Microsoft is like the predatory company eating away at the fiber of the consumer. Costs of $500 for an office suit are outrageous. Costs for Vista are incredible. The sheer amount of spying going on with those products is unconscionable. Everyone needs to know about all the spying going on and how it is a violation of our privacy. A company that has the ethics that Microsoft has should not be trusted at all, period.

And if patent trolls were the problem how come Microsoft isn't going after the patent trolls and instead are going after the open source community and the businesses that use open source? Microsoft is after patents, yes, to protect itself but also to arm itself. They are extorting patent cross licensing agreements in an immoral and unethical way.

Stop using Windows and start using Linux and other open source operating systems. Linux is certainly much better than comparable OSes and it is free and it does what you want it to do.

Microsoft is using technologies to lock you into their monopoly and you need to recognize that so that you can help us free ourselves of their threats and of their dictatorship.

Respectfully disagree.

[ushering05401]

It is the government that is the biggest danger in the USA, not the other parties mentioned.

Now, if you could seize control of Microsoft (or any other patent troll org) by spending a ton of cash to win a popularity contest every four years, then they would be the most dangerous organizations.

Regards.

One extreme to the next

[QuantumG]

How can you honestly be opposed to software patents but be ok with considering them "literary works".

Re:Alan Cox can suck it

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why his name is an anagram for Anal Cox.

Patents are good

[The_Abortionist]

The world lived in dark ages until the creation of the USA. Maybe that event should be appended to the Genesis, but I digress.

I find that a lot of people have a lot of advice when it comes to the US. How to handle the economy, how to run elections, etc etc. Yet, it seems to me as though the US is basically Number 1 at just about everything, including science and research. By number 1, I really mean better than the rest of the world together.

So while nothing is perfect, even in the US, I do think that we are doing it quite right.

So please, let's start respecting patents and lets stop violating them at every opportunity. Maybe then, Linux wouldn't be a Unix wannabe with a touch of Windows, but something new and creative.