On 10/2/11 11:38 PM, David Boyes wrote:
On Fri, Sep 30, 2011 at 01:56:03PM -0500, David Boyes wrote:
> >
> > > Some patents are to important to let a patent troll or potentially
> > > malicious company scoop it up, so Red Hat will acquire those patents
> > > and allow the open source community to use them without worrying
> > > about licensing that piece of technology.
> >
> > I think I'll just go patent everything I've ever done now. 8-(
>
> So what's your alternative?
Individual ownership of said techniques or ownership of common-practice patents
by out-of-field owners. The patent system was set up to protect the value of
investing in innovation by individuals, not to mass-transfer basic practices
into assets that can be bought and sold.
Individuals can always apply for their own patents, but the financial
burdens of the process are very high. This leads to corporations being
the ones who acquire them, and to be sure, corporations don't always
have "communal" intents when doing so. Some corporations out there are
a bit more benevolent to the communities they serve, such as the Red Hat
patent promise I highlighted in my original response.
There is a neutral 3rd party, the Open Invention Network [1], which
takes it a step farther. The member organizations make their patents
available royalty-free, and all they ask is that the licensee agrees not
to assert its patents against Linux. Three vendors close to this group
are on there... IBM, Red Hat, and Novell [2].
<rant> Many people look at "paying for linux" as only getting binaries
and a 1-800 support phone number from linux vendor, but in reality linux
subscriptions from a true *enterprise* vendor (e.g. Red Hat or Novell)
provide for so much more. Each vendor has programs like these which the
average person never sees, probably never heard of, but the programs are
*required* to ensure the longevity of Linux. By choosing enterprise
clones, such as CentOS, people undermine the business systems which keep
Linux alive. The Open Invention Network has the patent for "Fractal
Computer User Centerface with Zooming Capability." Can you imagine not
being able to use zoom functionality on Linux desktops? What about
"Method and Apparatus for Virtual Address Translation," which allows
Linux to resolve DNS names? Without DNS Linux would, in effect, be
completely useless. Can you imagine if Microsoft got ahold of that
patent? Linux, the cornerstone of modern open source software, would
never have taken off. What would the world be like without open source
-- seriously, think about the evolution of IT without Linux -- can you
do it? It's the subscriptions to the Linux vendors that allow them to
acquire these patents and keep Linux running in existing, and broken,
patent system</rant>
So looping this back to my original point: Don't be dissin' Red Hat for
applying to own the netboot patent. Red Hat may not be the one that
invented netboot, Red Hat may not be the one maintaining netboot, but
they'll at least be the one which ensures that all computers can boot
from a network without paying a technology license fee to some patent
troll or malicious/greedy/evil empire corporation.
[1] http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/index.php
[2] http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about_members.php
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