Nokia Corporation announced that it allows all its patents to be used in the further development of the Linux Kernel. Nokia believes that open source software communities, like open standards, foster innovation and make an important contribution to the creation and rapid adaptation of technologies. Nokia also committed not to assert any of its Patents against Linux Kernel.
Now let’s see how many people flame Nokia for not making these patents available for *all* open source software instead of only the Linux Kernel. Just like they did SUN…oh wait, that’s right, they won’t, they like double standards.
At least vendors are beginning to see the value of free software and open standards, as well as acknowledge it. Now if they (Hardware vendors) can be convinced to open source their drivers on free software platforms that will be a major victory.
Does this mean than Linus has rights to use these patents in his copywrited software, but no-one else?
What if I do a fork of the kernel called Kinux with a few little things changed, can I still use the patents?
It seems a little dangerous to me, as now there can be only one official kernel, any forks or modifications not authorised by Linus and merged with his code could be illigal if they still contain code that uses the patents. Does this not contradict the GPL?
what part(s) of linux infringe on patents held by nokia anyway? so what if they decide differently tommorrow? Yea, I am still confused by this…
AFAIK nokia used gpl code and didn’t give anything back. as for me conclusion is obvious
Anyone else notice that 2.6.12 is NOT covered? Only stable kernels 2.6.11 and below released on Kernel.org. That means that (probably) the large majority of Linux users using distro provided kernels are not covered.
They, however, cannot change their mind now. They have provided a legal statement on their website. If they tried to back out, a company like Red Hat could use estoppel as a defence.
I see this as a PR stunt.
big up to nokia as ali g would say
Well they only released for Linux because of the huge support coming from big companies like IBM. So, It is good that somebody from OSS got it.
First, Nokia will be promoting Linux and not that Windows Mobile junk. A person who has Linux on his phone and likes it might as well install it on his PC. The same thing happened with Windows when PPL first used Windows on PC and then it seemed quite natural to use Windows on their PDAs.
Second, it seems that it will not be something like SCO vs Linux but rather SCO vs Nokia. This means that instead of doing all the legal stuff Linux developers will be focusing on the software itself.
However, I hope Nokia won’t sue any OSS infringing their patents and derived from them. I think they don’t need it because it may threaten the existence of the software they are *now* relying upon.
i just feel like they left some BIG loopholes in there with some of the statements…
but once again, what patents does nokia hold that linux supposedly infringes on?
AFAIK nokia used gpl code and didn’t give anything back. as for me conclusion is obvious
Right…
http://www.maemo.org/nokia/contributions.html
Maybe they try to convince us that sw-patents do no harm.
maybe my information are a bit out of date. if i’m wrong than i’m happy
as for software patents i remember that couple of people connected with linux left nokia because of that
Anyone else notice that 2.6.12 is NOT covered?
I can’t find where this is mentioned in the article.
I see this as a PR stunt.
Agreed.
This might just be a “PR stunt”, but it is still welcome. If nothing else, it might encourage businesses to look into Linux. Even though SCO is getting smacked down in court right now, and bankruptcy isn’t far away, their FUD did hurt Linux in that it scared away possible Linux adopters. Large companies don’t like to install free software on thousands of workstations, and all of a sudden receive a bill for $695 per machine, far outstripping the cost of a Windows license. Even if they don’t provide much in the way of technical or monetary resources for Linux development, I have hopes that this will encourage companies to look into Linux as viable alternative to Windows.
Wise choice….
Good for the linux devellopment…
Linux will be so much cooler than it is right now.
Good going, thumbs up!!!
yep, linux will be super great now, how did we ever live without nokias patents anyway, should be a superb OS now…. wait how does this mean a $%^% thing?
I dont see why ppl are complaining about nokia’s decision, granted the loopholes…. Atleast they are trying…. :
This is simply a move to make them look good in front of the MEPs, for when they’ll have to vote about the software patents, probably in June.
The truth is that:
1) Not all papents holders will do this.
2) Allowing only linux to benefit from their patents still leaves 99% of the open source world at risk.
Don’t fall for them, SW patents are bad regardless.
This is nice gesture from Nokia, however:
Nokia is known to be one of the biggest supporters of software patents in the EU. They’ve got lots bad publicity especially among the open source people because of that. So, now they to try win back the lost support of the Linux people. But as they talk about the Linux kernel only and not about open source in general it tells clearly that this is mostly just a PR campaign (what worth is a kernel without all the software surrounding it?), though a positive one, from the FOSS point of view.
Even the biggest companies like Nokia can’t afford to make the ever bigger and more important Linux community angry (heck, even many of the best potential engineers companies can hire today are open source people etc.) Maybe even Microsoft will (have to) admit that someday?
(As an offtopic side note: I’ll support Mono the day that MS does the same with Mono as Nokia has now done with the Linux kernel: officially state that they will not use their patents against it. Until that day I will remain slightly sceptical about Mono, be that paranoid or not. Maybe MS could even gain more profits if they did that: much more support for .NET, good PR in the FOSS world etc.)
The GPL doesn’t allow code with patent encumberances. Unless Nokia allows all derivative works to license the patents, the patent grant is useless to Linux.
What do the majority of the people, including the EU MEPs know about the wide spectrum of the whole FOSS world: BSDs and other alternative FOSS operating systems, GNU, GPL, OSI etc? Not much. But they do know the word Linux.
When the large crowds (like many of the MEPs too) see the word “Linux” in the Nokia announcement, they are lead to think that this covers practically the whole open source OS, while, in fact, Nokia is only talking about the Linux kernel in a very restrictive sense here.
Clever PR from the major SW patent supporter in the EU.
Besides of the terms (though maybe rather restrictive) concerning the Linux kernel development, and besides of encouraging others to make similar commitments with FOSS development, also the following sentence of the announcement is quite positive anyway:
“While Nokia’s Patent Statement is limited to official releases of the Linux Kernel only, Nokia intends to review whether similar statements can be made with respect to other open source projects in which Nokia is participating.“
Did you dumbasses even RTFA?
It says:
“Nokia hereby commits not to assert any of its Patents (as defined herein below) against any Linux Kernel (as defined herein below) existing as of 25 May 2005. The aforesaid non-assertion shall extend to any future Linux Kernel…”
Thus, any kernel existing today (that’s ALL of them for you slow kids) and any in the future are covered.
However, Nokia seems to reserve the right to yank that allowance if they see fit.
THAT is the part that will rile folks up.
It also sucks that they seem to only allow LINUX itself to use the patents, not the OSS community in general. They do not appear to be actually giving anything away, the more I think about it. They seem to be LOANING patents, since it seems inevitable that someone will someday make use of the patents in a way that Nokia wants to suppress in order to enable that functionality themselves.
By the way, the above mentioned licenses do prevent such bizarre things. A legal entity can sue other legal entities for patent infringement in some GPL/LGPL code and at the same time use this very GPL/LGPL code for free, this is an unacceptable GPL/LGPL leak.
In general, I prefer GPL/LGPL over MPL/CDDL because the latter ones’ copyleft is too weak, but in this particular aspect, MPL/CDDL are clearly superior and cleaner. The FSF knows that and should adopt this MPL/CDDL feature to the GPL/LGPL, not next year, but today.
”
Did you dumbasses even RTFA?
It says:
“Nokia hereby commits not to assert any of its Patents (as defined herein below) against any Linux Kernel (as defined herein below) existing as of 25 May 2005. The aforesaid non-assertion shall extend to any future Linux Kernel…”
Thus, any kernel existing today (that’s ALL of them for you slow kids) and any in the future are covered.
However, Nokia seems to reserve the right to yank that allowance if they see fit.
THAT is the part that will rile folks up.
It also sucks that they seem to only allow LINUX itself to use the patents, not the OSS community in general. They do not appear to be actually giving anything away, the more I think about it. They seem to be LOANING patents, since it seems inevitable that someone will someday make use of the patents in a way that Nokia wants to suppress in order to enable that functionality themselves.
”
LOL, wanna finish that statement. Here, I’ll help.
”
Nokia hereby commits not to assert any of its Patents (as defined herein below) against any Linux Kernel (as defined herein below) existing as of 25 May 2005. The aforesaid non-assertion shall extend to any future Linux Kernel to the extent that Nokia does not declare any new functionality embodied in such Linux Kernel to be outside the scope of this Patent Statement. Nokia shall issue such declaration through its website no later than one hundred and twenty (120) days after the official release of such Linux Kernel.
”
OK, so yes, all kernels released as of yesterday are covered. And all future kernels are covered as long as they don’t add new functionality. Xen….not covered. Any new hacks in the kernel to make it play nicer in the embedded space…not covered. In other words, if we absolutely halt development and move the kernel into maintenance mode for all of eternity we are covered.
“Nokia’s Patent Statement is not an assurance that any of its Patents validly covers the Linux Kernel, is enforceable, or that the Linux Kernel does not infringe patents or other intellectual property rights of any third party.”
So they don’t even guarantee that the kernel is infringing their patents.
“”Linux Kernel”
means any version of the Linux kernel which (i) is released as “stable version”, (ii) is licensed under the “GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 2, June 1991 for the Linux operating system” and (iii) has been published by the Kernel.org Organization, Inc on its Linux Kernel Archive website at http://www.kernel.org.”
Anyone here running RC kernels or MM or w/e. Not covered. Anyone running a modified kernel provided by a Linux Distributor (ie anyone who hasn’t compiled their kernel). Not Covered. (In other words, most businesses running mission critical servers are not covered since most don’t download their kernel from kernel.org and compile it).
Most people have overlooked this nice little piece of the statement.
Reading the first half a paragraph of a statement doesn’t qualify as Reading TFA.
Oh, BTW, they can’t “yank” this coverage. They have explicitly allowed the little bit of coverage they have offered. If they want back on their word, because of estoppel, they would be shot down in court.
Nokia does not care for microsoft’s tactics or their ability to consume all the profits in an industry. You might be witnessing a preemptive move by nokia to keep MS out of the mobile space and perhaps to weaken MS’ cash crop (desktops) ever so slightly. Its interesting that this is coming on the heels of the announcement of nokia’s linux-based web tablet.
The cell phone industry has long fought over standards and licensing procedures. Licensing fees were a big problem for WCDMA. They caused many problems. Perhaps nokia learned something.
>>>”Nokia’s Patent Statement is not an assurance that any of its Patents validly covers the Linux Kernel, is enforceable, or that the Linux Kernel does not infringe patents or other intellectual property rights of any third party.”
This is basically the exact same position that IBM developed since 1999. IBM knows what patents they have themselves — but they don’t know what patents the other 3rd parties have — therefore they decided not to make their own distribution. Furthermore, they decide not to embed linux into their own commercial products.
The IBM’s 500 patent thing for the open source commnunity is another sideshow.
>>>Nokia does not care for microsoft’s tactics or their ability to consume all the profits in an industry.
The rest of Nokia’s partners forced Nokia to take a less than 50% stake in Symbian — for fear that Nokia is going to control their destiny.
Nokia wanted to use microsoft’s tactics — their partners won’t let Nokia to do that.
Yes, thanks Nokia for that PR gesture while you lobby European institutions to legitimise software patents with all that cash from…
* Punters continually upgrading their dodgy mobile ‘phones which broke down just outside the manufacturer’s stated guarantee period, despite the fact that you’d have to fix them for free if you only respected consumer law in various regions, notably Europe.
* Cross-licensing patents in that cartel you have going with all those other mobile ‘phone players, keeping real competition out.
It seems clear that this “patent grant”, apart from being a PR stunt, was only made to make the ethics around their Linux usage slightly less dubious. If Nokia had stopped their lobbying, however, perhaps we’d have been able to interpret this differently.
And develop a nice program, like you have for Windows, allowing me to connect and synchronize my phone with Kontact (I know there is gnokii, but I’m having trouble with it).
Instead, something made by Nokia would include a nice installer, and would really make my life easier … bah, I’d rather try to make it work without their help.
Nokia grants the kernel the right to use their patents… They have quite some reason to do this:
Just like IBM, it wants to use the Linux kernel and its community against others. (IBM against the MS server software). Especially now Microsoft is readying their smartphones (and of course every inexperienced computer user knows Microsoft …).
As for the the whole patent issue, it is a nice PR stunt indeed for Nokia.
They somehow have 2 bigger advantages by doing this.
Just my 2 cents…