Patents and Open Source

Two stories have cropped up this week about IBM and patent-issues. The first is from Greg Aharonian of the Internet Patent News Service who discusses the implications of using a Open Source product which includes IBM patents given IBM's history of vigorously defending its patents even when they are included in open protocols. The second is from ZD Net which claims IBM would like to see the Linux license changed to take more patent issues into account, so that it feels legally protected if it provides 24x7 support and tweaks the code. The article concludes by listing potential new Linux ports. The GPL does discuss patents (see the GPL preamble for explanation). somebody else and Linux Weekly News contributed links. update The Kernel mailing list has some debate on this, ranging from people who would like to work something out with IBM (so that the free software community can use arithmetic compression, and other IBM patents for free), to people who argue that if IBM does not want to play by our rules (freedom), it should go make its money somewhere else. A list of patents currently restricting us as well as a prediction of the demise of the patent system were posted.