From: Andreas Dilger <adilger@clusterfs.com>
To: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc: Karim Yaghmour <karim@opersys.com>, Dan Kegel <dank@kegel.com>,
Hugh Dickins <hugh@veritas.com>, Christoph Rohland <cr@sap.com>,
Jens Axboe <axboe@suse.de>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
Subject: Re: patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)]
Date: Fri, 24 May 2002 17:09:37 -0600 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20020524230937.GH9997@turbolinux.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20020524215730.GF9997@turbolinux.com> <E17BNgS-0007UA-00@the-village.bc.nu>
On May 24, 2002 23:37 +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> > What, so there are _no_ patents or other restrictions on any of then
> > commercial embedded OS vendor products?
>
> Thousands of them. Some of them like the Siemens power management patent
> really hurt Linux too.
Yes, that was my (weak) attempt at sarcasm.
> > PPS- I also think "defensive patents" on Linux are also a bad idea,
> > because (a) the Linux source code is surely "published" and any
> > ideas therein already constitute prior art for the sake of
> > defending a patent infringement suit, and (b) since patents can
> > be bought and sold any "defensive patents" might fall into the
> > wrong hands if the patent holder goes bankrupt and the assets are
> > sold off to the highest bidder - bad news for the entire Linux
> > community.
>
> Those defensive patents also provide scope for trading stuff with other
> companies, and finally never forget that if you own patents and say its
> a stupid idea you carry a *lot* more weight.
Well, the problem I try to highlight here is as follows (for example):
a)
- FSMlabs goes out of business
- they owe money to creditors
- creditors see patent as an asset to be sold to recoup some money
- nasty company buys patent rights
b)
- nasty company has lots of money, buys FSMlabs outright
- nasty company does not license patent for free to GPL software users
Now, like I said, IANAL, but it may be that the _license_agreement_
which allows one to use the patent is between FSMlabs and GPL software
users. If the patent is transferred to the nasty company, wouldn't that
make the original license agreement = (void *)NULL? The nasty company
may be under no obligation to have favourable (=free) license terms for
the patent.
If I tell someone "you can sleep in my basement for free" and then I
sell my house, I doubt the new house owners are under any obligation
to let that person stay in their basement for free, or at all.
Cheers, Andreas
--
Andreas Dilger
http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2resize/
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2002-05-24 23:13 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 179+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <Pine.LNX.4.21.0204292127480.1709-100000@localhost.localdomain>
[not found] ` <3CEDF94C.592636A6@kegel.com>
[not found] ` <3CEDFCED.D10CD618@zip.com.au>
[not found] ` <3CEE806D.D52FBEA5@kegel.com>
2002-05-24 20:26 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] Andrea Arcangeli
2002-05-24 21:18 ` Anton Altaparmakov
2002-05-24 21:18 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-24 21:46 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-24 23:05 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-24 23:22 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-24 23:53 ` Alexander Viro
2002-05-25 4:31 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 4:44 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 5:20 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 5:39 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 6:05 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 7:59 ` Thunder from the hill
2002-05-25 16:14 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 16:20 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 16:25 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 16:41 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 22:47 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 1:06 ` Andrew Morton
2002-05-26 5:45 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-25 17:47 ` Kurt Wall
2002-05-25 18:13 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 19:21 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 18:32 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 18:38 ` Mark Mielke
2002-05-25 17:22 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 17:49 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 20:07 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 20:29 ` Andre Hedrick
2002-05-26 2:53 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-26 2:17 ` Andre Hedrick
2002-05-25 20:53 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 21:19 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 17:50 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 18:02 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 18:26 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 18:44 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 19:04 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 19:52 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 20:36 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 20:51 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 21:05 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 21:20 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 21:23 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 2:46 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-26 3:33 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 21:44 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 23:16 ` Robert Schwebel
[not found] ` <200205260255.g4Q2tkM62553@saturn.cs.uml.edu>
2002-05-26 5:48 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-27 5:28 ` Calin A. Culianu
2002-05-27 22:12 ` Mark Mielke
2002-05-25 21:14 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 2:09 ` David Schleef
2002-05-26 3:17 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 3:45 ` David Schleef
2002-05-26 4:03 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 19:40 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-26 19:06 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 20:17 ` Alexander Viro
2002-05-26 20:33 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 21:33 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-26 20:44 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 9:13 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)]y Der Herr Hofrat
2002-05-26 14:13 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 16:31 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 3:58 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] Alexander Viro
2002-05-26 4:13 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 7:30 ` Alexander Viro
2002-05-26 14:42 ` yodaiken
2002-05-26 16:17 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 16:27 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 18:12 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 18:22 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 18:33 ` Mark Mielke
2002-05-25 18:45 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 23:27 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-25 18:44 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 19:14 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 19:41 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 18:30 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 18:52 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 21:22 ` Albert D. Cahalan
2002-05-25 21:33 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 21:39 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 21:55 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 22:05 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 22:13 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 22:17 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 23:10 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 23:54 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-26 4:05 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 6:25 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 23:56 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 3:40 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 8:05 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 8:58 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-25 22:19 ` Thomas Gleixner
2002-05-25 22:34 ` Erwin Rol
2002-05-25 23:17 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 23:37 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-25 23:46 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 0:01 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 10:11 ` David Woodhouse
2002-05-26 13:04 ` Roman Zippel
2002-05-26 13:26 ` yodaiken
2002-05-26 14:09 ` Roman Zippel
2002-05-26 14:21 ` yodaiken
2002-05-26 15:30 ` Roman Zippel
2002-05-26 16:55 ` yodaiken
2002-05-26 18:00 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 18:29 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-26 21:45 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 21:58 ` Wolfgang Denk
2002-05-26 22:12 ` Erwin Rol
2002-05-26 22:34 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 22:07 ` Mark Mielke
2002-05-26 22:18 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 18:20 ` Roman Zippel
2002-05-26 15:58 ` Nicholas Knight
2002-05-27 2:42 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 22:58 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 0:48 ` Erik Andersen
2002-05-26 5:31 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 10:19 ` Erik Andersen
2002-05-25 6:08 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 4:48 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 5:00 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 9:02 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-25 17:34 ` Oliver Xymoron
2002-05-24 23:27 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 3:13 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 3:25 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 3:46 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 4:08 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 4:25 ` Larry McVoy
2002-05-25 4:27 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 5:53 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-25 4:52 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-25 9:08 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-25 17:27 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 20:30 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-26 2:51 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-26 4:11 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-26 19:37 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-26 20:05 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-27 15:27 ` Pavel Machek
2002-05-25 22:33 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-26 0:07 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 20:34 ` Pierre Cloutier
2002-05-26 0:44 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-25 21:03 ` Pierre Cloutier
2002-05-26 0:39 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-26 3:12 ` Oliver Xymoron
2002-05-26 4:20 ` Linus Torvalds
2002-05-26 4:25 ` yodaiken
2002-05-26 13:50 ` Oliver Xymoron
2002-05-26 3:28 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP - Warning actual technical content yodaiken
2002-05-26 3:36 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 4:00 ` Andrew Morton
2002-05-26 5:38 ` Karim Yaghmour
2002-05-26 1:21 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] Roman Zippel
2002-05-26 5:44 ` Daniel Phillips
2002-05-27 4:12 ` Calin A. Culianu
2002-05-25 9:05 ` Robert Schwebel
2002-05-25 8:59 ` Realtime Linux Situation Robert Schwebel
2002-05-24 21:57 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] Andreas Dilger
2002-05-24 22:37 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-24 23:09 ` Andreas Dilger [this message]
2002-05-27 17:36 ` Siemens powermanagment patent? [was Re: patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)]] Pavel Machek
2002-05-27 21:36 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-24 21:56 ` patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)] Alexander Viro
2002-05-24 22:46 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-24 22:53 ` Alexander Viro
2002-05-27 21:52 Adam J. Richter
2002-05-27 23:26 ` Alan Cox
-- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2002-05-28 6:29 peter
2002-05-28 11:42 ` Alan Cox
2002-05-29 11:25 Robert Kaiser
2002-05-30 22:37 patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17) ] Ed Vance
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