"...specific software routines..."
Well, here we have a small discrepance of concept.
When I referred to "how to do" vs. implementation it was, in specific, to avoid the copyright issue. "How to do's" are protected by patent law, implementation by copyright law, AFAI understand.
The problem is that, actually, by just filing a patent, a developer is by definition bound to reveal the "how to do" to everybody in the world - even to those lovely commies.
Patent law was created to encourage disclosure. Thanks to it, thousands of discoveries that would have been kept as a secret are published and available (for a fee, or not, depending of the owner) for inventors that otherwise wouldn't have such a large body of knowledge to their disposal. Even with the risk of revealing it to the bad guys the advantage to our progress is worth it. If it's definitely too sensitive let the NSA do their work and keep inventing.
I'm going too long in this post; this is a complex theme. My point is, if IBM gives Linux the "how to do" to make multiprocessor scheduling, yes, they're giving technology away. But it's not at all different of publishing it on a book - or filing a patent, since we know very well that an enemy doesn't care about patents when working in secret against us. IBM is, by disclosing, expecting an advantage for themselves just like a patent filer does.
When IBM gives *code* away, as in, actual implementation, well, that's not a big deal. Even a high schooler can successfully implement that kind of technology by reading a white paper. Trust me on it, I have lots of code with my name on it.
Since BSD allows exactly that (and more), his arguments seem (to most of us) to be quite circular in reasoning and they make very little sense. Hence his perception that we are attacking him for his views as opposed to the lack of logic in his views.
As has been stated on this thread earlier, Solaris is now open source. He would prefer we use that rather than Linux because of the license. I see no difference between the two, as far as revenue or ip sharing is concerned.
That may be your opinion, and possibly an educated one at that, but I simply do not agree. China has cracked the top 10 in supercomputers in the world recently, thanks to specific donations to linux made by IBM. Now that they have the code, and the current pledge of these select vendors to keep providing it, there's ultimately no reason for the Chicoms, Vietcongs, etc. to return any favors. Do they ever?