Licensing

IBM patent claims show open source has arrived

At least no one can accuse IBM of playing favorites when it comes to open source.

IBM, a longtime defender and advocate of open-source software, took a shot over the bow of the open-source community in March when it sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company behind the OpenHercules open-source project.

Has Dr. Jekyll IBM just met its Mr. Hyde?

On March 11, 2010, Mark Anzani, vice president and chief technology officer within IBM's System z business unit, sent TurboHercules a letter asserting its patents against the OpenHercules open-source project. In it Anzani expresses surprise that TurboHercules wouldn't … Read more

What Apple's and Microsoft's patent threats mean for start-ups

Perhaps retirement doesn't suit former Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz.

Just weeks into his post-Sun life, Schwartz offers some delicious anecdotes in a blog post, summarizing Apple's and Microsoft's threats to sue Sun for patent infringement as more about bluster than substance.

But that's not the lesson I learn from Schwartz's commentary.

Instead, what is immediately obvious to me is that a) the technology industry is a morass of conflicting patent claims, b) since there's really no way to completely avoid others' patents the best defense is to have a hefty counterbalancing patent portfolio … Read more

When will Microsoft sue Google over Linux?

Microsoft once made the mistake of broad-brushing Linux as an intellectual property quagmire. It made Microsoft headlines, but few friends: lawyers didn't believe it, customers didn't want to hear it, and competitors dared it to sue.

Years later, Microsoft still hasn't sued, but instead plods away at convincing the world, one patent cross-licensing agreement at a time, that everyone, everywhere owes it money for alleged violations of its IP in Linux.

This week, Microsoft made its boldest move to date, signing yet another patent cross-licensing agreement with Amazon, calling out that this agreement allows Amazon to use … Read more

Apple, Google, and the importance of Bing

For some, the definition of software freedom begins and ends with source code. Such people have apparently never heard of market competition.

It's arguably even more important, and doesn't necessarily derive from a software license (though it's no doubt better when protected by an open-source license).

Over the last few weeks, we've seen signs that key open-source vendors are waking up to this fact, with both Canonical (Ubuntu) and Mozilla (Firefox) sniffing around Yahoo/Microsoft to replace Google with Yahoo/Bing as their default search engine.

Choice, you see, is good, even when it's not … Read more

Microsoft sues TiVo...but not over Linux. Surprise!

Hard as it may be to believe, sometimes Microsoft's patent lawsuits have nothing to do with Linux. Increasingly, however, they all seem to end with the same punchline: "Get a license to our patent portfolio and everything will work out."

When

Microsoft intervened in AT&T's patent infringement suit against Linux-based TiVo; it said it was doing so to uphold its IP interests. While the open-source community fretted that the intervention might signal evil intent against Linux, closer inspection by Groklaw revealed the lawsuit "has absolutely nothing to do with Linux."

Phew!

At … Read more

Could Apache keep Google's regulators at bay?

Google loves Apache.

Lost in the flutter over Google's hymn to openness is an intriguing factoid on open-source licensing:

Though many of the programs hosted on Google Code are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), when Google wants to open-source its software, it turns to the Apache Software License version 2.0.

Why?

Google's Jonathan Rosenberg elucidates:

When we open source our code we use standard, open Apache 2.0 licensing, which means we don't control the code. Others can take our open source code, modify it, close it up and ship it as their … Read more

To troll or not to troll, is that the question?

Everyone hates patent trolls (except, perhaps, the patent trolls' mothers). But it's easier to despise patent trolls when you either have a lot of patents, or none. What if your company were awarded a significant patent that could be used to shake down Google and the rest of the industry for corporate benefit.

Or buy food for your family?

Is it your fiduciary duty to exercise that patent? Is it a personal duty? And do you have the legal right to do so?

The first two questions are tricky, but the last one is currently being considered by the … Read more

Apache: 'No jerks allowed'

There's something different about the Apache Software Foundation. While Apache hosts some of the world's most important software development, its members seem more concerned with good code than good politics.

It's no secret that I've become enamored lately with the Apache License, but it's less well-known what first attracted me to the license: the wonderfully nice people affiliated with Apache. From Greg Stein to Geir Magnusson to Brian Behlendorf, it's hard to find a jerk at Apache. I'm sure they exist, but they hide pretty well.

In fact, in a presentation today I … Read more

Data's one-two punch in open-source business models

Some of us take longer than others. Tim O'Reilly moved on years ago from talking about open-source licenses and instead focused on the importance of data to business success. In the open-source industry, we heard his words but clearly didn't understand them.

We kept selling software through our "awkward teenage years," even as Google, 37Signals, Facebook, and others gave it away.

Years later, as Google pays for mountains of open-source code by aggregating data and selling data-rich services, we're starting to grok O'Reilly's message. It's what makes companies like Path Intelligence so … Read more