Re: Patented NSA-Linux

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> > If there is a patent, then it is the GPL that becomes hard to enforce, not
> > the patent.

> Nope that's not true. They use existing code. They release something
> according to GPL if then decide to add a patent how will you enforce it
> then? Their patches are mainly against the kernel. GPL states you can't
> restrict the rights of the GPL with a sw-pat.

Indeed, they will have to chose between enforcing their patent and
distributing their patched Linux kernel.

If they want to monopolise their calculation rule, they can still create a
system that keeps the rule separate from the kernel and interacts with the
kernel.  They can also create a free kernel patch that creates a perfectly
stable interface to the external patented calculation rule. In that case,
they could effectively make use of Linux while at the same time preventing
a free development of Linux-based systems.

I don't know how difficult this will be in the present case, but usually
with systems based on pure logic nothing of this sort is impossible.
Which is why the copyright-based GPL, even if it provides some valuable
protection against misappropriation by proprietary schemes, is hardly a
sufficient remedy against patents.  Other patents would be a better
counter-poison, if they were affordable for free software projects.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/