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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
Forwarding this exchange between Rick and myself, with his explicit permission - an interesting bit of info on the Licensing Wars.
Rick Moen wrote:> Quoting Ben Okopnik (ben@linuxmafia.com): > > > Hey, Rick - > > > > I've just been contacted by these people: > > > > https://www.openinventionnetwork.com/ > > > > They want to write something for us. [ ... ] What's your take on this? > > They're legit. I think the main reason they smell funny is that their > main assets -- the reason for their existence, a set of software patents > -- inherently smells funny. > > Back in the 1990s, there was a firm called Commerce One, which through > acquisitions picked up a bunch of patents related to online > communications, mostly business-to-busiess and e-commerce stuff. They > filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, and the court approved a sale > of the patent portfolio to a subsidiary of Novell. > > My impression is that Novell at that point woke up and said "We just > acquired what?" They really didn't want to become patent barons, and > saw from the SCO fiasco that they wanted to keep clear of, and > preferably disarm, the more scumsucking elements of the "intellectual > property" ranching business. So, they talked with IBM, Philips, Red > Hat, and Sony, and got them all to pitch in patents and money to launch > Open Invention Network to hold contributed patents (including the > Commerce One portfolio) and licence them royalty-free to any firm that > in return promises patent peace towards Linux and a list of > Linux-related codebases (Apache, Eclipse, Evolution, Fedora Directory > Server, Firefox, GIMP, GNOME, KDE, Mono, Mozilla, MySQL, Nautilus, > OpenLDAP, OpenOffice.org, Open-Xchange, Perl, PostgreSQL, Python, Samba, > SELinux, Sendmail, and Thunderbird). > > There's not a lot that stands absolutely in the way of them turning > evil, but it's reassuring that Red Hat's Mark Webbink approves of them > highly. See: https://www.dwheeler.com/blog/2006/04/14/#oin > > I hate to lose my cynic credentials, but I'd say you should eagerly > invite an article submission! >
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * https://LinuxGazette.NET *
David Richardson [dsrich at ieee.org]
On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 09:11:08AM -0400, Ben Okopnik wrote:
> Forwarding this exchange between Rick and myself, with his explicit > permission - an interesting bit of info on the Licensing Wars. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Rick Moen wrote: > > Quoting Ben Okopnik (ben@linuxmafia.com): > > > > > Hey, Rick - > > > > > > I've just been contacted by these people: > > > > > > https://www.openinventionnetwork.com/ > > > > > > They want to write something for us. [ ... ] What's your take on this? > > > > They're legit. I think the main reason they smell funny is that their > > main assets -- the reason for their existence, a set of software patents > > -- inherently smells funny. > > > > Back in the 1990s, there was a firm called Commerce One, which through > > acquisitions picked up a bunch of patents related to online > > communications, mostly business-to-busiess and e-commerce stuff. They > > filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, and the court approved a sale > > of the patent portfolio to a subsidiary of Novell. > > > > My impression is that Novell at that point woke up and said "We just > > acquired what?" They really didn't want to become patent barons, and > > saw from the SCO fiasco that they wanted to keep clear of, and > > preferably disarm, the more scumsucking elements of the "intellectual > > property" ranching business. So, they talked with IBM, Philips, Red > > Hat, and Sony, and got them all to pitch in patents and money to launch > > Open Invention Network to hold contributed patents (including the > > Commerce One portfolio) and licence them royalty-free to any firm that > > in return promises patent peace towards Linux and a list of > > Linux-related codebases (Apache, Eclipse, Evolution, Fedora Directory > > Server, Firefox, GIMP, GNOME, KDE, Mono, Mozilla, MySQL, Nautilus, > > OpenLDAP, OpenOffice.org, Open-Xchange, Perl, PostgreSQL, Python, Samba, > > SELinux, Sendmail, and Thunderbird). > > > > There's not a lot that stands absolutely in the way of them turning > > evil, but it's reassuring that Red Hat's Mark Webbink approves of them > > highly. See: https://www.dwheeler.com/blog/2006/04/14/#oin > > > > I hate to lose my cynic credentials, but I'd say you should eagerly > > invite an article submission!
I wouldn't say that Rick has damaged his cynic's credentials TOO much. His take on the reasons for the conversion from defunct vulture's portfolio (if patent ownership can be referred to as a "portfolio") to a more charitable mission is certainly not the sweet-and-light spin that the Novell people would like to see attached.
I suspect Novell wishes they had waited until after they dropped the Micro-deal bomb to do this, so they could have used it as a fig leaf to cover their open source credentials.
-- David \ Richardson \ Imagine whirled peas..... dsrich@ieee.org \ The above is my own opinion - nobody else wants it!
Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]
On Sun, May 25, 2008 at 10:38:44AM -0400, David Richardson wrote:
> > I wouldn't say that Rick has damaged his cynic's credentials TOO much. > His take on the reasons for the conversion from defunct vulture's > portfolio (if patent ownership can be referred to as a "portfolio") > to a more charitable mission is certainly not the sweet-and-light spin > that the Novell people would like to see attached.
To cite Rick:
> > My impression is that Novell at that point woke up and said "We just > > acquired what?"
This is a bit like Rome "accidentally" acquiring Sicily in the First Punic War: "yeah, sure, spoils of war - now what the hell do we do with it?" What they did with it was plant the seeds of the Roman Republic - one of the most successful political moves in history. Novell's response to an unexpected gain, it seems, was "umm... let's spread the risk." I'm not panning them for it; it's not a bad move in a walking-on-eggshells business climate.
> I suspect Novell wishes they had waited until after they dropped the > Micro-deal bomb to do this, so they could have used it as a fig leaf to > cover their open source credentials.
I don't know that it was an available option for them, but I suspect you're right; they desperately need to gain a little traction in the positive PR department. Novell, like Apple, has often failed (or has not had the corporate will) to do the right thing at the right time with regard to Open Source issues. It's possible - and, in fact, would be rather low-cost - for them to pull out of that tail-spin, but again, as with Apple, I'm neither making nor taking any bets.
-- * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * https://LinuxGazette.NET *