Re: Patents again

[Alexander Terekhov]

Abdullah Ramazanoglu wrote:
[...]
> > any patent assets could be sold, granting a perpetual license to
> > the community is the best act of good faith. IBM are very versatile,
> > they make good use of Linux but they don't depend on Linux, they have
> > lots of other options.
> 
> I don't believe that there would be genuine good faith towards OSS in the
> commercial world, beyond the front window dressing. As long as they can
> make the community to believe that they're friends (as opposed to allies),
> why should go that extra mile and give up their "ammunition" away? It
> doesn't sound like a good business deal.

Speaking of IBM, go read the IPL/CPL (Microsoft releases code 
under it too, BTW). It's really easy to remember for the GNU 
folk: section 2(b). ;-) IIRC, IBM's assignment(s) of copyright 
to the FSF had, in effect, a similar grant (apart from patent
termination clause under IPL/CPL).

regards,
alexander.