Patent Liability Insurance

[Matthew Flaschen]

Bruce Alspaugh wrote:
> I see my original posting has generated quite a bit of interesting
> discussion.
> From our perspective, we have to look at the big picture and find an
> acceptable balance between the potential risks and rewards of running an
> open-source project.  The risk of finding ourselves on the receiving end
> of a patent infringement lawsuit is one risk we have to consider in the
> overall picture.

This isn't a risk of releasing an open source program, but rather a risk
in releasing any product.  It's true that it's easier to find patent
violations in an open source program, but source code is not necessary
to prove infringement.

> The conservancy has the added bonus of giving us access to
well-respected attorneys who
> might come to our rescue should we ever need them.

This is a valid point, and access to the conservancy is in fact an
advantage to making the program free/open source software.

Matt Flaschen