More on Nokia’s patent pledge
Herkko Hietanen notes that maybe Nokia’s patent pledge is not as restrictive as I thought:
Anonymoys reader makes a good remark in his comment about the Nokias gesture.
“That is, since they are publishing the kernel source (and applications) covered under the GPL, they can’t impose additional conditions — such as keeping current on patent royalties — on the use of that code. In fact, their obligations extend beyond their announcement. If I extract code from the kernel and put it in my program, they can’t enforce patents on that either.”
GPL does that. Nokia had to make the announcement. They distribute Linux hence any of their patents must be available to use with Linux under GPL.
Nokia almost gets it
Nokia, one of the biggest software patents lobbyists in the EU, surprisingly shows some support for free software. According to the statement, “Nokia hereby commits not to assert any of its Patents (as defined herein below) against any Linux Kernel (as defined herein below) existing as of 25 May 2005.” This means any Nokia patents can be used in the kernel. This would be wonderful - if it was for real. The statement goes on:
The aforesaid non-assertion shall extend to any future Linux Kernel to the extent that Nokia does not declare any new functionality embodied in such Linux Kernel to be outside the scope of this Patent Statement. Nokia shall issue such declaration through its website no later than one hundred and twenty (120) days after the official release of such Linux Kernel. (Emphasis added.)
You’re allowed to use my patents - unless I tell you not to. A trap is also included: because you’re only allowed to use those patents in the official kernel, if such code is copied to any other software (say *BSD), the patent license doesn’t apply anymore.
In other news, Nokia announced a Linux-based device.
Välimäki’s PhD dissertation on Open Source Licensing
Mikko Välimäki has published his PhD disseration on open source licensing on the web. The book is called The Rise of Open Source Licensing. A Challenge to the Use of Intellectual Property in the Software Industry. The book is on different licensing models but also has bits on history of the movement and history of copyright and patents. It looks very interesting. I recommend you to take a look.
Digital divide conference papers available
Recently we had a conference dealing with several digital divide related topics: citizen participation, free software, biopatents, copyright, and sustainable information society. Some papers are available. Keynotes by Colin Lankshear and Rishab Aiyer Ghosh may be of interest to FLOSS researchers, as well as the papers in the “Open and Collaborative models” session and Tere Vadén’s paper from the IP session. My presentation is missing from the conference site; you can read the slides while I’m finishing my paper. I think the conference was succesful. I met some good people to work with in the future.
Also, hello to people reading Planet FLOSS Research.
BSA Criticizes Software Patents
Washington Post (reg. req., use BugMeNot) Jan 5, 2005, “Tech Firms Aim to Change Copyright Act”:
The BSA also proposed changes to U.S. patent law. The technology industry is facing spiraling litigation costs over patent rights, which the BSA said threatens to stifle innovation.
One problem is that as patents have proliferated, a new kind of business has emerged in which companies seek to enforce patents solely to make money, not to use the technology. Even when the patents are not likely to stand up in court, companies often settle with the patent owners rather than go through costly legal battles.
The BSA also wants a system to allow third parties to be able to challenge those patents.
What is going on? What is the trick? I hope this helps in the EU anti-software patent battle.
