system v patents and copyrights? old mold
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| tuxchick May 31, 2007 10:30 AM EDT |
This part I don't get: " If Novell crashes, then its assets would be up for grabs, and among those assets there is that little matter of the Unix patents and copyrights it claims to own. Now, who could possibly be interested in acquiring some old patents and copyrights that just happen to underpin the entire GNU/Linux operating system – and has enough spare cash to out-bid anyone on the planet? You don't need three guesses for that one. "If Novell crashes and burns, it is entirely possible that patents and copyrights that are being used to defend free software would fall into the hands of a company that has already made plenty of noise about using patents to attack it. Maybe those patents and copyrights would prove irrelevant to GNU/Linux, maybe they wouldn't. " "underpin the entire GNU/Linux operating system"?? I don't think so! He's referring to UNIX System V patents acquired in 1992. That's ancient history- how many of them have expired already, or about to? Unix copyrights are not an issue for a number of reasons- Linux is not copied Unix, and there are some good arguments that old Unix code has been passed around so much and exists in so many textbooks it doesn't have any copyright protection left anyway. Novell is not doomed, either. They've survived worse, and if you read the actual numbers instead of the poor reporting, their numbers are up for the quarter. |
| jdixon May 31, 2007 10:32 AM EDT |
> ...and if you read the actual numbers instead of the poor reporting, their numbers are up for the quarter. The market seems to agree. Novell stock is up 5% as of the time of this post. |
| dinotrac May 31, 2007 12:48 PM EDT |
> and there are some good arguments that old Unix code has been passed around so much and exists in so many textbooks it doesn't have any copyright protection left anyway. Methinks you're confusing copyright with trademark. Copyright doesn't "rub off" and copyrighted material does not become generic. When the copyrights expire, the material enters into the public domain. |
| tuxchick May 31, 2007 1:09 PM EDT |
Yeah, I'm just confused from too much reading :) I still dispute "underpin the entire GNU/Linux operating system". That makes no sense. |
| dinotrac May 31, 2007 1:14 PM EDT |
>That makes no sense. Hey come on... It certainly makes as much sense as somebody using Windows as a platform for serious computing. Oh, wait... |
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