IP-WARS.NET || A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral

A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral

By mikey, Section grok*/OSRM Articles
Posted on Fri Nov 12th, 2004 at 14:01:02 EST

A question and answer interview with Daniel Egger titled A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral was published today on BusinessWeek online. While Egger is absolutely correct on the lack of indemnification from patent lawsuits, he is neglecting to mention a glaring fact. The construction of the Mother Of All Bombs has been started, with the unwitting consent of the very community that it will destroy.

If software patents are not defeated, the success of his business model signals the death of open source as we know it.

Picture projects as varied as Debian, Slackware, Knoppix, Apache, and all of the software released by the FSF under the GNU banner.

These projects can probably not afford the insurance that OSRM is offering, nor can they afford to defend themselves. All of these projects started small, a "Mom and Pop" operation, if you will. With the success of OSRM comes a vested interest in protecting patent laws as they are. The only open source software that will survive will be projects that are corporate sponsored. Corporations that have deep pockets and who can afford Egger's product or can afford to defend themselves against the Eolas, Microsofts, and Darls of the world.

The days that private individuals and groups can freely release their creations are numbered as long as software patents are legal, and companies such as OSRM have a vested interest in keeping it that way.

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A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral | 12 comments (11 topical, 1 editorial, 3 hidden)

Only in the US (3.83 / 12) (#1)
by heimdal31 (heimdal31_ip_warsNO@SPAM.threenorth.com) on Fri Nov 12th, 2004 at 12:46:37 EST
(User Info) http://www.threenorth.com/sco

This is only currently true in the US and a few other places and may be true in the EU if they make the same mistakes.

The result will likely be a blooming of mom and pop projects in third world countries and a loss of US tech dominance. Once it is too late to regain that dominance, US laws will likely be changed, but by then, it will be too late to preserve the US dominance.

Depending on your world-view, that may or may not be a bad thing.

---Tim Rushing

Re: A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral (3.80 / 10) (#4)
by Potential Recruit on Sat Nov 13th, 2004 at 16:17:26 EST

You may want to look up and organization called the FSF. Once MS starts attacking open source with patents the FSF will probably be in the forefront of fighting for freedom.

Also once MS start attacking the community will innovate a counterattack. Just like groklaw sprung out of nowhere as a result of the SCO attacks on it other weapons will materialize once MS begins its attack.

Re: A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral by mikey, 11/14/2004 15:37:40 EST (4.16 / 6)
Re: A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral by pgk, 11/14/2004 16:00:45 EST (3.80 / 5)

Re: A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral by mikey, 11/14/2004 16:15:35 EST (3.77 / 9)

E-mail discussion with OSRM (3.50 / 8) (#3)
by heimdal31 (heimdal31_ip_warsNO@SPAM.threenorth.com) on Fri Nov 12th, 2004 at 16:02:12 EST
(User Info) http://www.threenorth.com/sco

Just because I'd like to make sure that all have seen this, in the earlier OSRM story, I posted my e-mails to Len Newman, the person in charge of the OSRM Grokline Patent Project.

---Tim Rushing

Bye bye spambot (none / 1) (#10)
by Potential Recruit on Mon Nov 27th, 2006 at 11:07:43 EST

This used to be a spambot post that is flooding the site. Due to volume, I had to resort to this while I work to block access by these bots. My apologies - thanks for your patience.

Jeff

Bye bye spambot (none / 0) (#12)
by Potential Recruit on Tue Nov 28th, 2006 at 14:25:37 EST

This used to be a spambot post that is flooding the site. Due to volume, I had to resort to this while I work to block access by these bots. My apologies - thanks for your patience.

Jeff

A Legal Gun in the Open-Source Corral | 12 comments (11 topical, 1 editorial, 3 hidden)

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