Bunker down for a spate of battles over software ownership and patents in the near future, said Usenix Association president Marshall Kirk McKusick.
Usenix president: Patent challenges will invade open source landscape
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Yea, I’ve been thinking this for a while. If the F/OSS community can survive then everything will be OK. This is just another closed source attack. There will always be people who try to stop innovation and those who don’t get on the wagon will be left behind.
The whole point of this article is ‘the danger of the GPL’. If you don’t want to share, don’t use GPL software. The GPL seems pretty bullet-proof, so I wouldn’t care to challenge it.
If you want to build a business that uses free software but doesn’t force you to share, use a BSD-licensed project. If you really can make money, plan on sharing a little of it with the folks that wrote the BSD-licensed software, since you now have a vested interest in their success.
No wonder BSD doesn’t succeed on the desktop. It’s because arrogant BSD-zealots like you keep bragging about it.
For the record, niether has Linux, and due to it’s current extra ‘popularity,’ it has a proportionaly larger number of zealots
You’re quite right in every one of your points, but make no mistake, your tone is no less endearing than other people’s arrogance.
Let’s not forget the Linux zealots, the Windows zealots, the Mac OS zealots, and well, damned near all other zealots out there, OS related or not make life difficult for legitimate promoters of whatever it is that’s being discussed.
*shrug*
Not that I care one way or the other.
4. If your company writes BSD-licensed software, others can just take your code and not return ANYTHING under ANY circumstances! How can you call this better for businesses?
I think you miss the point. I can take BSD-licensed software, modify it, add to it, sell it whatever. I am not required to do anything beyond give credit to the original authors. So I can then retain a competitive advantage over those with GPL-encumbered products. That’s pretty good for business. If I choose to give some portion of my work back to the community, I can. That’s why there’s so much *BSD in the embedded market.
No wonder BSD doesn’t succeed on the desktop. It’s because arrogant BSD-zealots like you keep bragging about it.
Pot, meet kettle.
“There will always be people who try to stop innovation and those who don’t get on the wagon will be left behind.”
Where has there been innovation in the OSS community? All I see are free versions of popular commercial software. Many even openly rip-off their competition’s UI. While there are minor differences between Linux distros none of them standout as being innovative or different.
I think there should be a non-for-profit organization that could raise funds for law suites and face closed software companies that may threaten our work.
Sad reality.
I think there should be a non-for-profit organization that could raise funds for law suites and face closed software companies that may threaten our work.
http://www.fsf.org/
Would the FSF pay for SCO lawsuits?
“If you don’t want to share, don’t use GPL software.”
If you don’t want to share your binaries which contain others’ + your additions it doesn’t matter wether the code from others is GPL or BSD. With the GPL -either before or after you modifications- you don’t have to share your source; only when you decide to distribute your binaries you have to provide the source including your mofifications.
“Where has there been innovation in the OSS community? All I see are free versions of popular commercial software. Many even openly rip-off their competition’s UI. While there are minor differences between Linux distros none of them standout as being innovative or different.”
This also has been discussed so many times… Try the search button!
This also has been discussed so many times… Try the search button!
Unless you’re enloop (IP: —.nc.rr.com), this should be an easy, almost mindless task.
Given that this guy is from Berkeley, I would guess that according to him the solution to all our troubles is to part with GNU, which has completely helped small businesses, students, and the like, and move to the Berkeley license. Well, the truth of the matter is that usage-wise they aren’t that different. The both share the idea of open-source. GNU is more politically-oriented, possibly because a Mormon did not write it!
This something that I’m beginning to wonder. With the elections here in USA, how will all this political stuff dealing with software licensing, copyrights and patents will play out. I HOPE THAT PEOPLE ASK KERRY AND BUSH ABOUT THIS IN THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL!!!
“Would the FSF pay for SCO lawsuits?”
OSDL would if you are suid
Given that this guy is from Berkeley, I would guess that according to him the solution to all our troubles is to part with GNU
McKusick is a bit more moderate and levelheaded than most people here…
Intellectual Property is Intellectual Capital!!!
Intellectual Property is Intellectual Capital!!!
Intellectual Property is Intellectual Capital!!!
Now I’ve got that off my back – IP is only worth something when and where it is being used. Otherwise it’s a waste of time and money.
Patents are only valid – as far as I can see – when you’ve got a massive investment of plant and machinery to pay off, and need to hold on to the monopoly granted by that patent until you’ve got yourself a return on that investment.
So some software company happens on a neat algorithm that’s been floating around the Universities for ages. So some software company decides to get a return on those Universities’ investment in education. So some software company is hostile to anybody else researching that same algorithm, let alone benefitting from its total lack of any hard work.
So basically, said software company induces the Patent Office into a conspiracy for the restraint of trade.
These are fighting words. They merely dissect the reason for the wholesale unemployment of trained software developers worldwide.
Software Patents are a Conspiracy for the Restraint of Trade!!!
Software Patents are a Conspiracy for the Restraint of Trade!!!
Software Patents are a Conspiracy for the Restraint of Trade!!!
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
I can take BSD-licensed software, modify it, add to it, sell it whatever. I am not required to do anything beyond give credit to the original authors.
Under the modified BSD license, you don’t have to even give credit. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html
That’s why there’s so much *BSD in the embedded market.
There isn’t as much BSD in the embedded community. Wind River and Wasabi are doing good work, but Linux has pulled way ahead. FreeBSD’s portability is a joke (4.x supports alpha and i386, 5.x adds Sparc), and NetBSD gets ignorned for whatever reason (NetBSD is my fave BSD, but it seems like hardly anybody else runs it). Linux supports the most popular embedded platforms (MIPS, ARM, PowerPC), and provides good performance on them.
I’ve never seen something running embedded BSD. I have seen legions of Linksys wireless routers, and TiVos, though. And Zaruauses, etc. etc.
The main problem is not with “Intellectual Property” or the patents on it, no, the problem is that the US at the minute is being run by lawyers who will look into every nook and cranny to find ways to get themselves more cash.
Every US business suffers by having these snivelling little worms working for them. Their moaning will not help the business that hired them, it will only bog them down with more and more legislation.
I would not care if it only affected US companies, they will get what they deserve, however, the scary thing is that the EU seems to be following what is happening in the US.
The US is being run by greed, in fact, spend some time surfing the net or reading your email, and you will be bombarded with adverts for this and that. Who asked for them ? I didn’t, and I am pretty sure you didn’t either.
All these goings-on with IP is just another attempt by people who cannot make a living of their own to cash in on the hard work of others.
So it will cost me $2 million dollars to sue TiVo to get their code? That seems like a lot compared to the nothing I just paid by searching google for “tivo linux.” Evidentally TiVo have a business model that they feel allows them to gain more by giving away a small amount of work, rather than developing a whole OS, so surely this is GPL working perfectly to create freedom while promoting business. Does the guy not realise he picked such a great example to counteract his argument?
“For the record, niether has Linux… pot meet kettle”
So? Nowhere have I ever mentioned Linux.
Face the harsh reality: Microsoft has 95% of the desktop and *BSD has what, 0.005%? Heck, even Linux has more market share than BSD!
Nowhere have I ever mentioned Linux
Nowhere have I ever mentioned or implied that you mentioned Linux. Take a closer look at what I wrote ;^)