Linux may infringe on 283 patents

[JohnT]

Study: Linux may infringe on 283 patents
Insurance company finds patent threats to open-source software; 27 held by Microsoft

http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/linux/story/0,10801,94986,00.html?f=x10

[aNoob]

They said potential threat.
If so, why Microshaft didn't filed a case against Linus ?
Hard to do,there are so many forks that Microsoft or any other company will just throw money outta window.Kill one today,other 10 would rise.Besides,who can be sued?Users?I wish to see that.Linus?Why?He contribute code and gathers code delivering us the newest version.Linux kernel? How can you sue a kernel? A piece of software?Moreover,nobody owns Linux,like a company owns something.Who would you sue?
The article is meant to sound serious , see, linux kernel is open to patent infringements,but we will not sue anybody.Heh.what a joke.If they had a case against linux be sure they would do it by now.
Is like the latest news which are saying that Sun is considering to buy Novell.Myself I don't believe that Sun has the money for that,but don't forget the other *cough*MS*cough*
I mean,just like IBM or MS, if you can't have better products then buy them!
How about the old fashioned way of delivering a better product than the competition?

[hard candy]

How about the old fashioned way of delivering a better product than the competition?
If you buy it, you save on:
1. Development costs
2. Marketing costs
3. Patent royalties/copyright fees
4. Plus if you're the CEO, you get a bigger sandbox to play in- hpoefully bigger than that other CEO's.
5. And you may make some money if you own the other guy's stock before you make the announcement.

[aNoob]

Me(slap forehead!)
Look (http://www.pubpat.org/) who are the guys! Some law firma ,hehehe.So, there will be a new trend in the lawyers branche.Patents.Guys feel the money.They can smell it.
Besides,if they offer an insurance for this , that means the risk is REALLY low.
Keep your bucks :D
Or spend them elsewhere.

[Crashcourse]

Using a computer these days is like the catholic definition of sin:
No matter what you do, you're a sinner. ;)

[Icarus]

I think I personally infringe at least 30 patents putting on my socks every morning. Lock me up, I'm a threat!

Ya, this 'law firm' has a great reputation and seem to be hoping on the 'Sue over IP bandwagon'

[StarTiger]

Originally posted by JohnT
Study: Linux may infringe on 283 patents
Insurance company finds patent threats to open-source software; 27 held by Microsoft


Reasons I'm not worried:

1. Please not the use of the word "may".
Those 3 letters leave a whole lot of uncertanty in them. they sound like they mean a lot where they really don't say much at all.

2. Note who did the study, an insurance company. of curse they want there to be doupt there son they can sell insurance form lawsuits.

3. If you look where the more probable real infringements are, that code was written 10+ years ago in Europe which means it falls under a compleatly different set of pattent laws.

4. If they did deside to sue someone, That is going to be an extreamly difficult lawsuit to do. because you've got literally tens of housands of people who have worked on the Linus kernal and other software form all around the word. A lot of them did so basically autonomiusly. so it's going to make a lawsiut nearly imposible form a shear logistical standpoint.

So , I'm not expecting this to go anywhere.

[rocketpcguy]

if linus moves to africa, can linux still infringe on patents? or imported products need to be clean too?

[JohnT]

Originally posted by aNoob
Me(slap forehead!)
Look (http://www.pubpat.org/) who are the guys! Some law firma ,hehehe.So, there will be a new trend in the lawyers branche.Patents.Guys feel the money.They can smell it.
Besides,if they offer an insurance for this , that means the risk is REALLY low.
Keep your bucks :D
Or spend them elsewhere. Don't dismiss them so quickly....http://www.pubpat.org/Microsoft_Patent_Watch.htm
http://www.pubpat.org/Activities.htm

[paj12]

OSRM doesn't seem to mention that most of the patents that Linux "infringes" on are probably bullsh** and would be ruled invalid in a court of law.

[aNoob]

Originally posted by JohnT
Don't dismiss them so quickly....http://www.pubpat.org/Microsoft_Patent_Watch.htm
http://www.pubpat.org/Activities.htm
Yes,is about the money.Wether Microsoft,Novell,Sun,whatever.Patents will become a very profitable business for lawyers in the very near future.
How's that,we offer you an insurance just in case the big boys will come after you for something you've developed.As a proof,check our activities,we're against monopoly.Once again,I say that if they offer an insurance,the risk is VERY LOW.
Besides,"may infringe" is totaly different from "infringe".They also discoveret couple hundreds "possible infringements".Come on,say it ,yes or no.
Lawyers...

[JohnT]

Originally posted by aNoob
Yes,is about the money.Wether Microsoft,Novell,Sun,whatever.Patents will become a very profitable business for lawyers in the very near future.
How's that,we offer you an insurance just in case the big boys will come after you for something you've developed.As a proof,check our activities,we're against monopoly.Once again,I say that if they offer an insurance,the risk is VERY LOW.
Besides,"may infringe" is totaly different from "infringe".They also discoveret couple hundreds "possible infringements".Come on,say it ,yes or no.
Lawyers... I didn't say one word about money. I was just indicating that the patent debacle is not limited to Linux, in fairness.

[aNoob]

My bad.Sorry.:D

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

Personally, I see right through the FUD on this one, and I hope everybody else does too. I mean, come on, an insurance company that offers a litigation umbrella for people running Linux publishing a report that might convince you to buy their services? NO WAY!!! :rolleyes:

Personally, the part that irks me the most is that they say they're not releasing which patents they feel Linux would infringe on. Their claim, IIRC, is that in doing so, it would cause the patent holders to come out of the woodwork and sue the people making the software. I look at this in two ways, both resolving to how I think this claim is a load of garbage. The first part, they have the same fears I think SCO has when it comes to "show us the code"-- if they tell us which parts infringe, then the community will undoubtedly change the offending parts, thus eliminating the issue.

My second question is this: once people get on board with this goofy insurance, who's to say that someone won't leak which patents are infringing, so as to spark up the fire of lawsuits? I can see the ad now:


An open letter to all Linux users:

"Microsoft has discovered that using the letter d in the Linux cd shell command infringes on the patent they hold on using the letter d as part of a command to change your current working directory. ALL SYSTEMS ARE AFFECTED!

...but there's still hope: PROTECT YOURSELF. For as little as $9.99 a day, you can have the peace of mind that Microsoft's not going to sue your silly little behind off. Instead, gradually pay your silly little behind off to us, and we'll make sure BIG, BAD MICROSOFT 'S REIGN OF TERROR won't rain on your open source parade.

Come on now... If anybody buys into this, I'm going to quit the tech industry, and start selling insurance policies to the tech industry as an "intellectual property awareness consultant" :rolleyes:

[paj12]

Come on now... If anybody buys into this, I'm going to quit the tech industry, and start selling insurance policies to the tech industry as an "intellectual property awareness consultant"
Apparently, the city of Munich has "bought into" this. They are halting their switch to Linux because of patent concerns. Here's your opportuntiy! Hop a plane over there and sell them a policy! :D

[Parcival]

Originally posted by paj12
Apparently, the city of Munich has "bought into" this. They are halting their switch to Linux because of patent concerns. Here's your opportuntiy! Hop a plane over there and sell them a policy! :D

Well, officially there's no connection between the two, but liberal Bavarian politicians use the fear of patents against the federal government to put them under pressure to think over their position on software patents in the European parliament.

[je_fro]

Pam Jones of Groklaw fame works there, and I believe Bruce Perens has a hand in that company too....