IBM And Sony Form Linux Alliance 165
An anonymous reader writes "CNN is reporting that IBM, Sony, and Philips are creating a Linux adoption group. Called the 'Open Invention Network', it is intended to protect vendors and customers from patent royalty fees while using OSS." From the article: "Patents owned by OIN will be available without payment of royalties to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against others who have signed a license with OIN, when using certain Linux-related software. Traditionally, patents have been pursued for two primary reasons -- to defend one's own intellectual property or for barter to trade in cross-licensing agreements to gain access to other companies' patents. OIN represents a new form of cross-licensing that its backers say could spur innovation. "
"could spur innovation." (Score:3, Interesting)
Protection racket (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:A matter of trust... (Score:5, Interesting)
But seriously, I also wonder what the requirements for membership in this group is. This is a "if you don't sue me, then I won't sue you" club. But what if a corporation wants to join without holding any patents? They would get a lot out of joining, but not really have anything to contribute. Would they still be allowed to join?
Re:Potentially awesome (Score:2, Interesting)
The reality of IBM's last foray into patent donation to the OpenSource community was much much less impressive than the publicity it generated. Most of the patents were either irrelevant to the OpenSource community or about to expire or both.
Re:Protection racket (Score:1, Interesting)
Actually they chose a child because it best represented the mentality of most Linux fanboys.
Funny how it's "control and profit" minded companies employing most of the people working on OSS (not necessarily to work on OSS, but most OSS developers have to earn a living to allow them to "play"). Gee, I wonder how
To me a big point of Linux is a the 'f**k you' to the nasty big corps
That's right, increasingly a lot of OSS isn't about creating better software, it's about the politics. Nice that you have your agenda and then go run off at the mouth about other peoples simply because they don't match yours.
Re:A matter of trust... (Score:3, Interesting)
Saying IBM or Sony is like saying United States of America. Are you talking about Texas or Hawaii or Massachusettes?
They're a little bit different.
To the public it's one company (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Are Free Software Patents Good? (Score:1, Interesting)
Not that the USPTO doesn't still need a good overhaul, but until then, this will help spur innovation.
This is great but... (Score:2, Interesting)
That doesn't seem to much sense so here's an example scenario:
- MSFT decides Linux kernel violates some of their patents.
- Sues some-non-commercial-linux-distro users.
So, would OIN be willing to assert its patents against MSFT?
-ankur
Re:Groupthink clarification requsted (Score:4, Interesting)
--Sun-tzu
I think in this case Sony sees a threat from Microsoft, and wants to gang up as much as possible. For Sony, DRM and patents are largely orthogonal. DRM has to do with copyright and the enforcement mechanism is primarily the DMCA.
I think it's worth noting that if Sony had to choose between ditching DRM and protection from death by patent litigation, it would choose the former. Content, especially music, just isn't as big a business as consumer electronics.
Either way, you can still hate Sony if it suits you. It's a pretty big company, it's probably OK to like one division and hate the other.
The hive mind has spoken.
Novell and Red Hat also (Score:2, Interesting)
Plutocracy (Score:3, Interesting)
I'd say that's a fair assessment--Americans form governments through elections (democratic process) that are heavilly influenced by money--especially coporate money (a plutocracy). The only real way to restrict the (usually corruptive) influence of wealth in government is through an informed, involved electorate. Unfortunately the American electorate is neither.
Not so sure about Canada, which is also in America.
As a Canadian I can tell you that the same is very true here, though in slightly different ways. In the US, those critical of the government point to the heavy influence the oil industry has in Washington. In Canada, that influence is provided by the information/entertainment industry. Besides having the govenrment-owned CBC network, the two major privately-owned canadian networks/media conglomerates (Bell-Sympatico-CTV and Global) are owned and run by very major supporters of the governing Liberal party (financially and through direct political involvement). I've found that despite being government owned and obviously socialist editorially that the CBC is probably a bit more critical/objective in its stories about the government even though the government owns it.
In Quebec in particular, most advertising agencies providing services to the government have been major donors to the Liberal party and have provided staff--on paid company time--to "volunteer" for Liberal campaigns. This behaviour goes quite a bit beyond even the deplorable bid-selection behaviour of the previous Mulroney government. If the uninformed have any doubts about the influence that the media and (dirty) money have on Canadian politics, take some time to look at the Gomery Inquiry report. Lobby money certainly does run Canada and the Canadian electorate is even less involved than their American counterparts.
As far as this new patent initiative by these major corporations, it is merely fortunate that they are acting in the best interests of consumers and innovation. We need a "movement" involved in patents equivalent to what GNU provides for copyright. Given the higher barrier to entry in the patent system it was much less likely to happen based on the efforts of a few dedicated individuals, and given the nature of our governments, even less likely that they would spearhead such an initiative.