Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Mon, 21 Dec 1998 20:56:09 -0700 | | From | Jim Freeman <> | | Subject | GPL and s/w patents [was Re: Article: IBM wants to ...] |
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On Mon, Dec 21, 1998 at 05:17:16PM -0600, Michael Elizabeth Chastain wrote: ... > IBM is not saying "we want a BSD-like license where we can hoard our > enhancements." They just don't want to lose our patents in other products > if they write linux kernel code and give it away. ... > IBM is not looking for a license that permits them to hoard their code. > They are looking for accommodation so that they can distribute Linux but > not surrrender all their patenent rights everywhere.
IBM doesn't lose any patent protection if they give away code that implements patented processes/methods - after all, they have patented (ie: opened to public inspection) them in return for exclusive control over the USE of said processes/methods. In fact, making an implementation thus available furthers the opportunities for them to impose license/use fees and restrictions on anyone who USES the patented method implemented in such GPL'd code.
The GPL accomplishes its stated purpose in this instance - the CODE is available to be used. Patent law also secures the patent holder's reward for obtaining the patent - the METHOD is available to be used, with its USE subject to whatever restrictions the patent holder may wish to impose on users.
The fact that such software is GPL does *not* make it or its use sovereign - it is merely available, with use of patented methods subject to license and permission of the patent holder. The GPL is helpless to protect code/user sovereignty from patent holders' restrictions on use.
The ultimate purpose of the GPL is handily thwarted by software patents - GPL s/w which incoporates patented methods is redistributable, but its USE is not sovereign, and USERS are not sovereign in their use of the software.
It can also be argued (and is, ad nauseum) that the original constitu- tional intent of the (U.S. - and probably others) patent system [To promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts] is sorely mal- served by (especially) software patents, and that such progress stands to be impeded, rather than promoted.
Part of rms's ingenious foresight was to recognize a long time ago that sovereignty (for both s/w and its users) requires both the GPL *and* the discouragement of s/w patents - thus the LPF et al. The growing tidal wave of (trivial?) s/w patents (and the USPTO's complicity in 1) patentng s/w at all (anathema before the mid-80's [algorithms vs. processes] and to 2) patenting the most trite [ie: non-inventive, obvious] of programming methods) encumbers otherwise sovereign software every bit as onerously as proprietary copyrights ever will.
http://lpf.ai.mit.edu/
U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8: The Congress shall have Power .. To promote the Progress of Science and the useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discovereies;
[ Apologies for US-isms - the foundations and motivations for such laws are probably similar in other countries. ]
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