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Red Hat has a pointRed Hat has a pointPosted Jun 3, 2002 20:41 UTC (Mon) by jonlasser (guest, #1077)In reply to: Red Hat has a point by rknop Parent article: Red Hat and software patents
In fact, I suspect that Red Hat's problems with the BSD license are more oriented around legal concerns than around minor software-license infighting. That is to say, a patent that is not actively defended is generally considered invalid. So Red Hat has to keep the patent from being used willy-nilly by 'unauthorized' parties. Authorizing everyone to use it regardless will end up with an invalidated patent, practically speaking. Licensing it under the BSD license is tantamount to blanket authorization to use it. Licensing the patent, by contrast, for free to all software that can't be taken proprietary puts them in a much better position to defend the patent, as I understand the system. That said, I'd like stronger assurances that they will not prosecute for use of the patents in GPL'd code.
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Re: Red Hat has a point Posted Jun 4, 2002 9:02 UTC (Tue) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link] Sorry, I think you're confused. Trademarks are the ones that need defending. Patents you are perfectly allowed to let a billion dollar industry emerge before you start enforcing it.Remember the GIF patent, that they started complaining about years after everyone was using it for the web. With patents you can pick and choose who to sue.
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