Hello, As mentioned in the latest weekly newsletter, our project is now part of the Open Invention Network also known as OIN (http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/). I'd now like to explain why I decided to join this organization and I'm sure you'll all agree with this decision. I'd also like to thank Elisa who helped me carefully understand the OIN agreement, which was not an easy task since it is lawyer jargon. Please note that joining the OIN is free – of charge ;).
The role of the OIN is to protect free software projects against patent lawsuits. Not all countries are concerned by software patents but some countries like the USA are and some other ones are still wondering about introducing them, like the European Community. Now let's see why we might need the OIN. Why patents are a threat ======================== Basically software patents are a potential threat for any software editor/vendor/programmer because, whatever the license of your software, I mean free or proprietary, patent restrictions may apply in some countries. For example there is a photo panorama stitching library, autopano-sift I think, which is GPL'ed free software but cannot be used in the US without paying a license fee for its underlying patents… Copyright and licenses come from laws about authorship rights as patents come from industrial property laws, at least in France but I guess we're not the only ones. There is no link between both and both can apply simultaneously. Nowadays many free (of charge) closed software are protected with patents for various reasons. Some companies are trying to setup counterattack patent portfolio (if they get sued they reply with their own patents against the attacker), some of them just want to be able to get an annuity from competitors or even to kill them before they grow. The latest threat is the worst for our project. Indeed this is impossible to escape from an open patent lawsuit if you are small because you have no money to pay for building your own patent portfolio nor to hire lawyers to defend your project. This is why joining the OIN is an incredible opportunity for us because I do believe that our project is here to stay and its visibility is growing and will continue to grow for a while. How does the OIN work? ====================== The OIN is a community of various organizations, may they be for-profit or non-profit, more or less involved in free software, and willing to defend against opponents to free software: “Open Invention Network® ensures the openness of the Linux source code, so that programmers, equipment vendors, ISVs and institutions can invest in and use Linux with less worry about intellectual property issues. Its licensees can use the company’s patents to innovate freely. This makes it economically attractive for companies that want to repackage, embed and use Linux to host specialized services or create complementary products.” As noticed in a previous mail, the OIN already has prestigious members like NEC, Novell, Philips, Canonical, Red Hat, Sony, Google, HP, IBM, Facebook, Mozilla or KDE. Their way to function is to share patents between members in order to let members build on a reliable base: “Open Invention Network® is refining the intellectual property model so that important patents are openly shared in a collaborative environment. Patents owned by Open Invention Network® are available royalty-free to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux System. This enables companies to make significant corporate and capital expenditure investments in Linux — helping to fuel economic growth.” What can the OIN do? ==================== Once we are part of the OIN, we have nothing special to do. Of course if one day we own patents, we can give them to the OIN to increase the community portfolio, but this day seems still far in my opinion ;). The OIN is supposed to help in case DoudouLinux would be sued. As Frank Casey from the OIN wrote me: “OIN also grants to DouDouLinux a free license to its patent portfolio (300+ patents and applications). We continue to look for Linux applicable patents and acquire them as this removes them from those who are opposed to Linux and […] we acquired a bunch of patents that were being marketed as ammunition against Linux. Also, if a third-party asserts their patents against your Linux offering(s) we will support and assist you… primarily in the area of patent analysis and patent validity. We did this when Tom Tom International was sued by Microsoft.” Tom Tom was sued for its GPS products two years ago, escaped from the threat using its own patent portfolio then joined the OIN which helped them find a solution, see: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/tomtom-sues-microsoft-back-for-patent-infringement.ars We all hope this will never occur of course… Conclusion ========== As a result we, Elisa and I, have only seen benefits in joining the OIN: * we benefit from the OIN's patent portfolio umbrella * they protect our whole project even if I was the only one to sign * they don't ask to review our code or artwork, they just come into action in case of patent annoyance * this is free of charge Unfortunately nowadays patents are not used by the largest companies to protect against imitation but to kill newcomers, especially in the IT world where you really cannot study all the existing patents before writing your first code line! So the OIN is just all what the free software community was needing to protect against these pernicious software patents and… they did it! Cheers, JM. _______________________________________________ Doudoulinux-dev mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/doudoulinux-dev
