Red Hat Makes a GPL-Compatible Patent Deal 59
Bruce Perens writes "Red Hat has settled patent suits with Firestar Software, Inc., Amphion, and Datatern on a patent covering the Object-Relational Database Model, which those companies asserted was used in the jBoss Hibernate package — not in Red Hat Linux. The settlement is said to protect upstream developers and derivative works of the upstream software, thus protecting the overall Open Source community. Full terms of the settlement and patent licenses are not available at this time."
Reader Koohoolinn adds a link to RedHat's own report of the settlement and adds that the deal "is GPLv2 and even GPLv3-compatible." Koohoolinn also points out
commentary on Groklaw that this deal "means that those who claim the GPL isolates itself from standards bodies' IP pledges are wrong. It is possible to come up with language that satisfies the GPL and still acknowledges patents, and this is the proof. That means Microsoft could do it for OOXML if it wanted to. So who is isolating whom?"
Not hard (Score:5, Informative)
NeXT EOF? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sure this protects anyone other than Red Hat, I (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sure this protects anyone other than Red Hat, I (Score:5, Informative)
upstream developers are covered .. (Score:5, Informative)
"Upstream developers receive a perpetual, fully paid-up, royalty-free, irrevocable worldwide license to the patents in suit"
"All products distributed under a Red Hat brand are covered
Re:Legitimacy? (Score:4, Informative)
Here. [uspto.gov] You make it sound like patents are a big secret or something.