> > > > I certainly hope the terms of the settlement are > > released. > > Keeping it secret would conspire to cast FUD on > all > > other > > distributions incorporating ZFS or considering it; > > most of > > which would be targeted at folks well below the > > Fortune 500, > > which means those not wealthy enough to qualify as > > Oracle customers > > anyway. :-/ > > > Somehow the Register always knows more then the > other news sources;-) > > excerpt from news: > "NetApp and Oracle have agreed to dismiss their > respective lawsuits against each other without > prejudice. ZFS-using companies such as Coraid and > Nexenta can now go ahead free of the threat of NetApp > interference" > > "The supposition now is that Compellent, Coraid, > GreenBytes and Nexenta can go back to using ZFS > without the threat of NetApp legal action." > > I guess since "ZFS" is released under "CDDL" whom > ever uses it is also covered. I think what really > happen was Oracle told NetApp, if they wanted to be > next on oracle's companies to buy list;-) > > http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/09/oracle_netapp_ > zfs_dismiss/
Just because Oracle and NetApp dismissed their lawsuits against each other, it does not follow that "ZFS-using companies such as Coraid and Nexenta can now go ahead free of the threat of NetApp interference". I'm not saying that's what happened, but since the agreement reached is confidential, for all we know NetApp could still go after anyone other than Oracle. Use of the CDDL code may grant a license to relevant patents, but I don't see that it protects a licensee from being sued by a 3rd party. If the agreement doesn't either, then Oracle has, for ZFS, effectively allowed NetApp to reduce the value (by increasing the risk) of that license. Hypothetically, if Oracle regretted that Sun's CDDL allowed others to profit from the ZFS patents and implementation, the confidentiality of the deal with NetApp provides a way to discourage others from doing so without altering the terms of the license. At least I think that's possible. Again, I'm not saying that's what's happened, but it is why I think a confidential settlement is still disruptive to other players wishing to incorporate ZFS into their products. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list opensolaris-discuss@opensolaris.org
