Re: [Patents] Anyone done the research: SCO, IBM and software patents.

[roberto@dicosmo.org]

Dear Russell,
     it is my understanding that IBM is going alongside, and strongly
supporting the opens source/free software movement, and it has shown
to be able to put valuable resources at work in this direction.

But one should not forget that IBM is just a huge multinational company,
that happens to have some common goals with the free software movement
today, and might not have any in common tomorrow, all depends on the
evolution of the market and technology.

In particular, they are definitely not going to jeopardize their huge
patents assets just because we claim that software patents are "bad".

But they can, and they are showing they understood it, use such
powerful legal asset in the US to help protect open source software
from empty lawsuits, while this commonality of goals persists.

Actually, it has been years since I tried at every occasion to
convince IBM representatives that they could make things more
formal and announce that they would step in, with all the weight
of their portfolio, alongside any free-software project threatened
by software patents suits. What they did in the SCO case is the
next-best solution.

Do not get me wrong: I do consider software patents harmful, and I
spent a lot of energy fighting them wherever possible, but while
they are still there, we cannot ignore them and we have to deal with
them. Now, in the software industry, big companies have large
portfolios that they cross licence among themselves, effectively
neutralizing the very existence of patents (unless some smart guy,
like Eolas, has the energy to try to get money from the big guys).
While we continue our fight to abolish software patents, it is
nevertheless reassuring, even if, maybe, a bit odd, to have one of
the big guys covering free software with the very legal tool we are
trying to have removed.

I hope this may contribute to explain why not so many people raised
in defence of SCO against IBM's threaten to use patent infringement
as a retaliation to SCO's attack on the Linux kernel.

>>>>> "Russell" == Russell McOrmond <russell@flora.ca> writes:

    Russell>   I have not done the research, but am wondering if anyone else
    Russell> has.  As part of the SCO-vs-IBM copyright case there was a
    Russell> counter-lawsuit from IBM alleging that SCO is infringing on some 
of
    Russell> IBM's software patents.

    Russell>   What are these patents?  What methods do they relate to, and in
    Russell> what software?  Has IBM made a public license available to these
    Russell> under which SCO broke the conditions, or is this yet another 
patent
    Russell> in IBM's portfolio that they select who they sue based on whether
    Russell> they they feel like squishing a competitor or not?

    Russell>   I am trying to make sense out of why the community thinks that
    Russell> SCO is bad for claiming ownership over someone else's work using
    Russell> copyright law, but that there is not yet a general concern about
    Russell> IBM's claim against someone else's work using patent law.  I see
    Russell> IBM and their pro-swpat extremist lobbying and growing patent
    Russell> portfolio to be a far greater threat to FLOSS than even the worst
    Russell> case scenarios with the SCO case, and yet there are few who agree
    Russell> and/or understand at this point.

    Russell> --- Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://www.flora.ca/>
    Russell> Governance software that controls ICT, automates government 
policy,
    Russell> or electronically counts votes, shouldn't be bought any more than
    Russell> politicians should be bought.  -- http://www.flora.ca/russell/

-- 
--Roberto Di Cosmo
 
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