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Novell, buyer's remorse, and the patent threatNovell, buyer's remorse, and the patent threatPosted Nov 22, 2006 15:43 UTC (Wed) by tjc (subscriber, #137)In reply to: Novell, buyer's remorse, and the patent threat by dark Parent article: Novell, buyer's remorse, and the patent threat
I think it's important to keep in mind that Microsoft's products are just as much at risk of patent claims as free software projects are.Linux is more at risk simply because the source code can be examined by anyone. Someway may suspect that MSFT is violating a patent by observing the behavior of a program, but without examining the source code it's hard to prove.
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Patents Don't Apply to Source Code Posted Nov 22, 2006 16:26 UTC (Wed) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link] Patents apply to behavior, not source code. There's no reason source code would be necessary or even make it easier to prove patent infringement.
Patents Don't Apply to Source Code Posted Nov 22, 2006 16:51 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] Not all behavior is exposed to the user. You won't tell a Linux kernel with RCU from the one without RCU except by comparing their performance.
Patents Don't Apply to Source Code Posted Nov 22, 2006 17:24 UTC (Wed) by HenrikH (guest, #31152) [Link] True, but then a propietary company has to tell everyone that they have RCU since they need to make a selling point ;-)
Patents Don't Apply to Source Code Posted Nov 22, 2006 20:54 UTC (Wed) by tjc (subscriber, #137) [Link] Patents apply to behavior, not source code.Patents apply to the use of concepts or ideas. As noted by others, this may or may not be apparent without seeing the source code.
Patents Don't Apply to Source Code Posted Nov 30, 2006 18:45 UTC (Thu) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link] Patents apply to behavior, not concepts or ideas. Clever lawyers have succeeded with patent applications for increasingly abstract things, but the patents still apply only to some process that implements an idea and not the idea itself.
Microsoft and other vendors of proprietary software are regularly found guilty of patent infringement without the benefit of source code. RCU is mentioned above, but this is by definition a behavior that can be observed.
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