[Patents] ZD article on Raph Levien's patents

[Stefane Fermigier sf@fermigier.com]

http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2650749,00.html

   Meanwhile, Eric Raymond, another open source advocate, has been trying
   to push what he calls the "Chinese finger trap proposal." Patent
   licensees could be locked into protecting open source projects.
   Raymond proposes that some major company with both a strong portfolio
   of patents and an abiding interest in open source software prohibit
   its licensees from suing open source developers. That is, if a company
   like IBM adopted such a policy and third parties wanted to license its
   patents, they must forgo enforcing their own patents when open source
   projects use the ideas.
   
         [...]
   
   But there's no simple answer to the problem of using patents in open
   source software. Levien recognizes the paradox: On one hand, he made
   money from forcing everyone who used his patented ideas to give him
   royalties. On the other, he shared the source code of several programs
   and recognized how the cooperation helped him and others. The two
   models were in conflict. Levien asked himself, "How can I reconcile my
   patents with my open source development?" The result was the
   royalty-free license for those who also share their source code.
   
   For now, it seems that kind of generosity is the best the open source
   community can hope for.

Of course, in Europe software patents are still illegal, so what we can
hope for is that they stay that way so this is a completly different
situation.

        S.

-- 
Stéfane Fermigier, Tel: 06 63 04 12 77 (mobile).
<www.portalux.com>: le portail Linux / logiciel libre.
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