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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Simon Phipps wrote in relation to CC0: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>> ... </span>Had they persisted, I believe OSI would have needed to face the issue <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>> of how licenses treat patents.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>There really aren't too many alternative ways for FOSS licenses to treat patents:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>The FOSS license does not contain a patent license.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>There is a patent license for the FOSS work as distributed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>There is a patent license for the FOSS work as distributed and its derivative works.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>There is a patent license for all FOSS works.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Symbol'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>·<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>The patent license is royalty-free and unencumbered for the implementation of a standard.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I'm aware of FOSS-compatible licensing examples of each of these. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>There are also sloppy licenses where at first read the scope of the patent license isn't obvious. For example, the GPLv2 prohibits distribution if a patent encumbrance is actually encountered – but without offering a patent licenses directly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>There are many examples of patent-encumbered software where the copyright owner doesn't own and can't license the patent. This is the problem of third party patents and patent trolls and university professors and US government employees. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>I know of an example of FOSS software where the patent claims are licensed separately (and for a fee) to almost the entire software industry already – but separately from the FOSS copyright license. Certain important codecs are licensed that way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>There are even examples where the copyright owner is willing to grant a patent license for most FOSS applications but excludes certain applications. The Oracle/Sun/Java TCK licensing is an example of that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Given this wide assortment of alternatives, do you expect OSI to bless any one in particular?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Probably the only grand solution to the "patent problem" is the one proposed by Richard Stallman and lots of others: Prohibit software patents entirely. But that ain't gonna happen in our lifetimes, so I hope OSI doesn't waste its time traveling down that particular long and winding road.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>/Larry<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Lawrence Rosen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Rosenlaw & Einschlag (<a href="http://www.rosenlaw.com/"><span style='color:#0563C1'>www.rosenlaw.com</span></a>) <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Cell: 707-478-8932 Fax: 707-485-1243<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'> Simon Phipps [mailto:simon@webmink.com] <br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, May 4, 2014 4:05 PM<br><b>To:</b> license-discuss@opensource.org<br><b>Cc:</b> Karl Fogel<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [License-discuss] Can OSI take stance that U.S. public domain is open source?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal>On Sat, May 3, 2014 at 9:13 PM, John Cowan <<a href="mailto:cowan@mercury.ccil.org" target="_blank">cowan@mercury.ccil.org</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal><br>I continue to think that our CC0 decision was wrong insofar as it can<br>be read as saying that the CC0 license is not an open-source (as opposed<br>to OSI Certified) license. There may be reasons not to certify it,<br>but not to deny that it is open source.<o:p></o:p></p></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>We did not decide against CC0. The discussion was certainly at a low point when Creative Commons withdrew it from the approval process, but that's what happened, not an OSI denial. Had they persisted, I believe OSI would have needed to face the issue of how licenses treat patents.<o:p></o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal>S. <o:p></o:p></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>