[Nottingham] [Rant] Software patents abuse to defend an old monopoly?

[Martin]

Folks,

Yet another case of what I personally consider to be the misuse of
patents to stifle development and progress:


*IBM tears up open source patent pledge, claims FOSS*
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/06/ibm_hercules_project_patents/

####
IBM snubbed a request from the British founder of TurboHercules SAS to
let it offer a disaster recovery product for IBM mainframe users and
instead accused the French open source startup of violating its
intellectual property.

[...]

The mainframe emulator code was written to enable users to run IBM's
z/OS on x64 or Itanium iron instead of System z hardware from Big Blue.

[...]

"In an area in which IBM generates massive revenues (an estimated $25bn
annually just on mainframe software sales!), any weapon will be brought
into position against open source," griped Mueller. ...
####


*IBM patent claims show open source has arrived*
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-20001824-16.html

####
IBM, a longtime defender and advocate of open-source software, took a
shot over the bow of the open-source community in March when it sent a
cease-and-desist letter to the company behind the OpenHercules
open-source project.

... TurboHercules points out that it has tried repeatedly to work with
IBM on resolving licensing issues, but to no avail.

    We originally wrote to IBM requesting that it license its mainframe
operating system to customers, on reasonable and fair terms, for use
with Hercules in certain circumstances. Not only did IBM deny our
request, but it now suddenly claims, after ten years, that the Hercules
open-source emulator violates IBM intellectual property that it has
refused to identify. We then realized that our only hope as a small
company was to file a complaint with the European Commission.

...  IBM, unlike Microsoft before it, is not simply spreading FUD: it's
enumerating the patents in question and taking its case to the alleged
violator, not to the press, as Microsoft did.

Even so, Mueller is right to point out that IBM's action is cause for
concern as it's a case of IBM defending an old monopoly...

... This isn't cause for concern. It's cause for celebration. It means
open source truly has arrived.
####


My own personal view is that the present utilisation of patents in the
computer world is more a case of abuse rather than that of following the
original aims of patents of *promoting* development and progress. The
only people that win in the present game of patents are those in the
legal profession. How many years has the SCO attack on the very
existence of Linux run for?... And is still ongoing for how much longer?
And after how many millions of dollars of legal fees?...


We all pay for that. Both in increased costs and in stifled development,
and in the protection of the stranglehold of old monopolies.


For the more 'activist' types, see:

End Software Patents
http://endsoftpatents.org/

The Free Software Foundation
http://www.fsf.org/


I guess it looks like 'business as usual' in the corporate world!

Right or wrong? Or just another case of "That which is"?

Cheers,
Martin


-- 
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Martin Lomas
martin at ml1.co.uk
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