[Fwd: [gnu.org #285277] Open Source Initiative Certification for GPL 3.0]

[David A. Temeles, Jr.]

Matthew Garrett wrote:

 > b) nobody seems interested in discussing where boundaries should be 
 > drawn when it comes to patent-related license termination

Russ Nelson replied:

> If nobody is interested in it, why bother talking about it?

DAT Responds:

The patent license issue is one of the most contentious hurdles to adoption
of "open source" software and I see this as being a major issue in the near
future in legal departments throughout the land.  The original open source
software licenses failed to address the patent license issue - essentially
because there were little or no software patents.  Then open source software
licenses (e.g., IBM's) began extending express patent licenses to those
patent claims incorporated in the licensed software, but only to the extent
the licensed software utilized the claims at the time the initial version of
software was released.  Now, open source licenses are essentially trying to
eliminate the effect of software patents altogether.  For example, the GPLv3
provides an express patent grant to all patent claims owned or licensed, now
or in the future, by a party distributing covered software.  This license
appears to extend to all versions of the software and all licensees of the
software.  The license applies regardless of whether: i) the version of the
software released by the distributing party actually incorporated features
covered by the claims; ii) the licensee is a downstream user of the
distributing party (i.e., the licensee is using the version of the software
distributed by the distributor or by a sublicensee of the distributor) or
the licensee obtained a version of the software from a party either upstream
from the distributing party or on a different fork altogether; or iii) the
patent claims apply to software, hardware or some other unrelated
technology.  Is a license that requires such a grant consistent with the
definition of open source according to OSI?  If so, should it be?  I think
these are legitimate issues for us to waste a few keystrokes on...

Dave
David A. Temeles, Jr.
Temeles & Temeles, PC
703.354.7905 x 230 (Tel)
703.354.7905 (Fax)
dtemeles at nvalaw.com
1616 Anderson Road, Suite 101
McLean, VA 22102

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-----Original Message-----
From: Russ Nelson [mailto:nelson at crynwr.com] 
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 11:17 AM
To: License Discuss
Subject: Re: [Fwd: [gnu.org #285277] Open Source Initiative Certification
for GPL 3.0]

Matthew Garrett writes:
 > a) the fact that license-proliferation archive suggests that there's 
 > been no activity since last September, and 

I'm a little frustrated by that, too.  The discussions were always
intended to be among a small group, to prevent lobbying on behalf of
one license or another.  I thought it would happn on
license-proliferation, which is how and why I set it up.  Instead, the
committee has used a CC list.  Once the committee's results are
accepted by the OSI board (which should happen soon ... very soon),
they will be published, and THEN the fighting will begin.  Did I say
"fighting"?  I meant "discussion".

 > b) nobody seems interested in discussing where boundaries should be 
 > drawn when it comes to patent-related license termination

If nobody is interested in it, why bother talking about it?

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