Any one can sue any one, for sure. Is the threat of a patent lawsuit enough to discourage individual developers to continue creating open source? Maybe.
Is it profitable to sue individual open source developers? Of course not. They are not generating any revenue and therefore given that any patent defended in court cost $1 million, any company spending that kind of money would soon run out of business. FUD. Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. The reality is that open source kills patents, because open source developers can easily show that they created the software before the patents were granted. Some patents may be valid, some parts of Linux for example could violate some patents. But the US law requires patent holders to send a "cease and desist" letter to the violator. The violator (the company commercializing the product in violation of the patent) may choose to: 1. Pay royalties. 2. Stop commercializing the product. 3. Continue commercializing the product, ignoring the letter and risk being sued. 4. Stop commercializing the product for a while, circumvent the patent and continue commercializing the product. Clearly none of those affect the individual open source developer, only companies using the invention and commercializing a product that includes said invention. By the way, if said company uses Perl in your internal processes and Perl is found to violate a patent, the company would not have to pay royalties, because the product in question does not contain the invention. As you can see, it is a very uphill situation for the patent holder, since most companies using open source could easily circumvent patents. That's the strategy Linux is using and it has worked wonders in the last 10 years. Cheers, Guillermo. On Sat, 2010-08-14 at 07:19 -0700, François Masurel wrote: > Open Source doesn't protect at all against patents, that's why they > have created the GPL v3 which include a patent grant license. Apache > License might also include some kind of patent protection. Most open > source licenses don't protect against patent lawsuits. > > I've found an interesting article "Software Patent Lawsuits Against > Open Source Developers" by Bruce Perens : > http://technocrat.net/d/2006/6/30/5032/ > > Some patents have been invalidated, some have not. > > On 14 août, 16:01, Guillermo Schwarz <[email protected]> > wrote: > > On Sat, 2010-08-14 at 05:54 -0700, François Masurel wrote: > > > > Google could always grab an open source version of Java, name it Gava > > > > or whatever, and then rename the service gae/gava. > > > > > If the Oracle patents are valid, they will have to pay Oracle > > > royalties even if they use an Open Source version of Java like Apache > > > Harmony unless this Java implementation circumvent the Oracle patents, > > > maybe Dalvik ? > > > > I'm not a lawyer, but I think patents only prevent commercialization of > > a product, not using the invention or creating an open source product. > > > > Gae/J is a commercial service, but if you use an open source product in > > order to provide that service, then those patents wouldn't apply. > > > > Then in court Oracle would argue that the patents apply to the closed > > source part rather than the open source part, and Google would easily > > show that it applies to the open source part or have a patent to protect > > their invention. > > > > > > > > > It would be interesting to get the Apache Harmony guys point of view. > > > > It is open source => no problem. As you may already know, this has never > > been tested in court, so who knows really. > > > > It it were tested in court and open source won over patents, then > > nothing would have changed. For example the zip algorithm was patented, > > and there were a lot of free implementations for it. Patents have a life > > span of 25 years or so. The strategy Unisys (the holder of the patent) > > used was to sue individual users of the patent, namely big websites that > > had GIF encoded pictures. That triggered the creation of the PNG format. > > > > In case patents won over open source, it would be a very different > > scenario, since most open source would have to be rewritten. There are > > patents over basic technology on the Internet like sending files over a > > communication link, or clicking on a link and downloading software, then > > most of the Internet would have to be deconstructed and reimplemented > > using workarounds. I think the Internet would be blacked out for a > > number of years. There are so many commercial interests on the Internet > > to continue operating that I see no opportunity for open source to loose > > against patents. > > > > My 0.02 > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 14 août, 14:18, Guillermo Schwarz <[email protected]> > > > wrote: > > > > That's a very interesting question. > > > > > > First of all, I doubt Oracle would be interested in killing a cloud > > > > technology based in Java if there are other corresponding technologies > > > > doing the same (Python). It would kill half the market AND demonstrate > > > > Java as inadequate for serious cloud computing. > > > > > > Supposing that Oracle had a competing technology that meant it would > > > > make reasonable business sense to kill gae/j in order for developers to > > > > switch to their technologies, then Google could always grab an open > > > > source version of Java, name it Gava or whatever, and then rename the > > > > service gae/gava. > > > > > > Cheers, > > > > Guillermo. > > > > > > On Sat, 2010-08-14 at 02:52 -0700, François Masurel wrote: > > > > > Will Google App Engine for Java be impacted ? > > > > > > > I guess that if the Oracle patents are validated, Google wont be able > > > > > to use their "adapted" version of the JDK anymore because it will not > > > > > pass the TCK tests which is required to get the GPL patent grant. > > > > > > > Does that mean the end of the Google App Engine for Java platform any > > > > > time soon ? > > > > > > -- > > > > Simplex Veri Sigillum > > > > -- > > Simplex Veri Sigillum > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Google App Engine for Java" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/google-appengine-java?hl=en. > -- Simplex Veri Sigillum -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google App Engine for Java" group. 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