Charles Cranston wrote:
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xandros
On 2007-06-04, a "broad collaboration agreement" between Xandros and
Microsoft was announced.[8] The agreement included "patent covenants
[to not sue] Xandros customers", similar to the agreement that
Microsoft reached with Novell which has been widely criticized within
the free software community. To date, there has been no real evidence
that any patent infringement has occurred. Microsoft appears unwilling
to specify which patents it alleges to have been infringed. Because
this deal was signed after March 28, 2007, Xandros will apparently be
unable to distribute software licensed under version 3 of the GNU
General Public License while party to the patent arrangement.[9]
Presumably that is what is being referred to. I know nothing about
any deals with Fedora andor RHEL.
I'm checking on Fedora now, as I think I just had/have it wrong in my head.
But as to RHEL, check out
http://www.redhat.com/magazine/001nov04/features/patents/ and
http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html
Basically, Red Hat:
1) Acquires patents on our code. However if an open-source project
re-uses our code we agree NOT to pursue any patent infringement rights.
However if the software is non-Open Source we retain the right to go
after the party. This is called our Patent Promise
(http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html)
2) Red Hat formed a partnership with Sony, IBM, NEC, Novell (yes,
Novell!), and Phillips called the "Open Invention Network."
(http://www.openinventionnetwork.com) The idea of it is that we grouped
up with these partners, gathered our IP/patents together, and states
that "if you use our patents, you agree not to sue us."
3) Open Source Assurance Program
(http://www.redhat.com/rhel/details/assurance/)
3a) If a patent/IP suite is *ever* launched against a customer Red
Hat agrees to replace/recode the infringing software
3b) Modify the code so it is not infringing
3c) Just buy the rights to the IP/patent
1) So, if any company uses patents/IP from Sony, Red Hat, IBM, NEC,
Novell, Phillips they lose the ability to sue Red Hat & customers
2) If people use Red Hat patents in open-source software, we don't
pursue them
3) If someone does sue a RHEL customer, or Red Hat, we replace the code
or just buy the IP/patent
