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Open Invention Network expands Linux patent protection:
Today, everyone -- yes, even Microsoft -- use Linux and open-source. It's been years since Linux was under attack by SCO for imaginary copyright violations, and then Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed that Linux violated over 200 of Microsoft's patents. So over 15-years ago, the Open Invention Network (OIN) patent consortium was formed to defend Linux against intellectual property (IP) attacks. Even so, Linux and open-source software are still under attack from patent trolls and other attackers. That's where the Open Invention Network (OIN) steps up by expanding its patent non-aggression coverage by updating its Linux System definition.
The OIN, the world's largest patent non-aggression community in history, is adding the following programs and components to the Linux System: .NET, ONNX, tvm, Prometheus, Helm, Notary, Istio, Nix, OpenEmbedded, CoreOS, uClibc-ng, mbed-tls, musl, SPDX, AGL Services, OVN, FuseSoc, Verilator, Flutter, Jasmine, Weex, NodeRED, Eclipse Paho, Californium, Cyclone, and Wakaama, among others. Altogether 337 new software components are being added. This brings the total number of protected packages to 3,730.
Yes, that includes a programming environment, .NET, from Microsoft; Prometheus, the open-source time-series monitoring program; and Helm, the Kubernetes DevOps framework. In short, OIN's protecting parasol against open-source's IP enemies has grown ever wider, ever more protective.
"Linux and open source collaboration continue to thrive as they accelerate the pace of transformation across a spectrum of industries. With this update, we have addressed expansion in key software platforms and projects. Additionally, we have added protection for strategic packages that enable hardware design and embedded applications," said Keith Bergelt, the OIN's CEO.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 19 2022, @03:01PM (3 children)
How many of these projects have Code of Conducts? How many have big corporate backers?
I'm thinking this whole OIN thing is going to become the lastest E^3 with Microsoft eventually buying the key players outright before terminating the agreement.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 19 2022, @04:14PM
What if there were a patent on a project having a Code of Conduct (CoC) ?
Then projects wanting to have a CoC would have to license the patent. This would discourage projects from having a CoC.
I still would like to see the development of a CoC which is a violation of the CoC. (a CoC that violates itself merely by adopting it)
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @01:51AM (1 child)
I was contacted by OIN recently asking me to join. I've assembled and published a handful of small/niche Linux distros and it looks like they've contacted me over the one that was moderately popular. TBH my first read was spam and I junked it - I'm surprised to see this article with similar wording.
RE buying em out and closing em down - that was one thought I had i.e. maybe Microsoft became a partner after Linux was patched (2009) [slashdot.org] to avoid the licensing costs (2003) [slashdot.org] that Microsoft wanted per their upheld FAT patent (2006) [slashdot.org]? Another thought was that their email only mentions Microsoft and their branding reads like a nuspeak for "freedom to innovate" [bbc.co.uk] in which case I assumed if it was legit then it was going to be another MS agency.
If we assume that this is legit and has any real purpose in life then why even bother approaching the distro builders? I might have contributed 10-15k lines of code to my distro/s in the past 20yrs and my intentions can be readily identified by both the GPLv2 license included with that software and the lack of any patents that I hold. But that's a bee's dick of software compared to the tens of millions of lines that will touch on nearly every facet of patent-worthy computing, which was shared with the public/me as open source, meanining (a) that's code common to almost any/every distro and (b) I don't own that patent risk - some poor bastard like Linus does. So if they want to help, then how about the OIN just emails Linus, Tridge, the GNU, Apache and Electronic Frontier Foundations and tells them that there's some free patent lawyers available if/when they need 'em.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 20 2022, @07:54PM
"So if they want to help, then how about the OIN just emails Linus, Tridge, the GNU, Apache and Electronic Frontier Foundations and tells them that there's some free patent lawyers available if/when they need 'em.
"
that doesn't sound like much of a business model to me. :)