Re: [Patents] pooling patents, version 2

[Peter Vandenabeele <peter.vandenabeele@mind.be>]

On Fri, Jan 03, 2003 at 12:01:41PM +0100, Simo Sorce wrote:
> On Fri, 2003-01-03 at 11:25, riel@nl.linux.org wrote:
[...]
> However if you really think you have to play the game, I think that
> an easier and more effective solution could be to add an anti-patent
> clause in free software licenses, not just the one present in GPL but
> probably a more offensive one like I've seen in some proposed licenses.

IMVHO, GPL does not have an "anti-patent" clause, but rather a 
"patent submission" clause. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

The statement of the license:

From http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

  "...
  7.  If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent 
       infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), 
       conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or 
       otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do 
       not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot 
       distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under 
       this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a 
consequence 
       you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent 
       license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by 
       all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then 
       the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to 
       refrain entirely from distribution of the Program. ..." 

I am afraid I interprete this as a complete and unconditional surrender to 
patents. 
In my current interpretation, it says that if someone can block the use of 
the 
program with a SW patent, the result is that "the only way to satisfy this 
license is to refrain entirely for distribution of the Program". 

Is that not a very easy "Denial of Service" attack on GPL'ed code ? Anyone 
that is 
capable of enforcing a SW patent could block further redistribtion of this 
GPL'ed 
program, because as a redistributing party, I would not have the rights to 
distribute the code anymore due to "the other pertinent obligations" forced 
on me.
The same with export restrictions that we recently saw on GPL code (This is 
GPL
code, but you are not allowed to export it to Libie, Irak, ...)

> A clause that will forbid you to use free software that has the clause
> if you sue anyone for a patent on a free software product.

Who will enforce the policy that you are not longer allowed to use that 
software
under this license ? You need a well-funded organisation to help the 
individual 
under attack make that counter attack.

Peter

> Simo.
> 
> -- 
> Simo Sorce - simo.sorce@xsec.it
> Xsec s.r.l.
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