Posted on 08/02/2004 9:05:28 AM PDT by GeorgiaFreeper
Linux potentially infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft but none that have been validated by court judgments, according to a group that sells insurance to protect those using or selling Linux against intellectual-property litigation.
Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, conducted the analysis for Open Source Risk Management. OSRM is like an insurance company, selling legal protection against Linux copyright-infringement claims. It plans to expand the program to patent protections.
(Excerpt) Read more at zdnet.com.com ...
Ping!
More excerpts:
Linux founder and leader Linus Torvalds has taken that approach. "Finding patent infringement has always been a responsibility of the patent holders," he said in a 2003 interview. "It is a fact that I do not encourage engineers to look up patent information."
But then MS has a tried to patent 0's and 1's.
How many patents to do FreeBSD, NetBSD or OpenBSD infringe?
LOL, this has to be the most biased piece of garbage to come down the pike in a long time. It's like saying that the moon might be made of green cheese, but it hasn't been proved yet. And the piece is put out by a company that sells insurance to folks just in case it is. I have had my laugh for the day.
That does not mean they are wrong.
Did you read how much their insurance will cost? It almost seems like they are part of the mob and want "protection money"
From what I can tell from a cursory search, the Public Patent Foundation is a lefty group that would seek to invalidate the patents involved. They've alleged that a number of MSFT patents were improperly issued and ought to be revoked. While I can understand an insurance company wanting to see this study conducted, it makes no sense for MSFT to get involved with such a group.
I think patent holders who lay out stealth patents and don't prosecute them for years like booby traps should loose the right to them. This reminds me of Hernando de Soto's "The Mystery of Capital". In it he argues that the developing world missed the lesson of the frontier in American History. In the early days of the frontier many wealthy people owned extensive tracts of land that they never did anything with (stelth patents). Squatters would move onto the land and improve it and establish productive farms, communities, etc.(open source) The judicial system back them was intelligent enough to recognize the squatter's rights to the unused land.
Actually, I was very upset when the Justice Department went after them for their "monopoly". I just observe the fact that Microsoft tries a lot of stuff on the competition, too.
Yeah, it can offer to collect premiums, but can it afford to pay them if the suits materialize? I don't see any risk diversification. "Like an insurance company," indeed.
Look guys this is a goober trying to sell insurance to big companies they don't need.. of course he's going to claim they are at risk.. if he didn't say that he'd have no free checks coming in.
I don't approve of software patents, but it's hard to believe Linux doesn't infringe thousands of them. That was really the whole point - to take the best concepts from other OS's and combine them. Naturally, contributors to Linux would build pieces based on work they had done for other OS's. Every OS steals from the others and tries to improve upon them - that's how progress is made in this industry.
FUD.
Bad news? Or a sales pitch?
If they wait more than a couple of years from the date of infringment to make a claim after the software is out there and being used by thousands I really think they don't deserve the right to that intellectual property. I think it should be more like Trademarks. If they're not defened they become invalid.
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