elkosmas

Όπως είναι για μερικούς γνωστό δεν έχω ιδέα από νομικά, εκτός από τα απαραίτητα περί βιοηθικής, δεοντολογίας και ιατρικού απόρρητου και αυτά λόγω εργασίας.

Όμως επειδή η Microsoft αναφέρει ότι το ανοχτό λογισμικό παραβιάζει πατέντες της το τελευταίο καιρό που ίσως να έχουν νομικό ενδιαφέρων σχετικά με το ανοιχτό λογισμικό είπα να ασχοληθώ λιγάκι.

‘Ελα όμως που τώρα μπερδεύτηκα χειρότερα!

Σε πρόσφατη ομιλία του ο έγκριτος νομικός Eben Moglen λέει:

“Novell’s activity will be protected by the fact that it was complete as of the date in November, which is the effective date of their deal with Microsoft. [The GPL revisions won’t be retroactive.] Microsoft’s activity will begin to disperse patent defenses into the community. When GPL 3 goes into effect, every Microsoft coupon handed to somebody, which results in the shipment of a Novell Server Edition product to that coupon-holder, will result in a conveyance of broad patent defenses to parties throughout the community.

“The goal of this provision was to incent Microsoft to get out of the patent deal with Novell. Microsoft, which fully understands what we are doing and why we are doing it, has elected instead not to withdraw from the deal with Novell, but to throw coupons wholesale out of airplanes. You have been watching for months as Microsoft gave away these coupons — which were supposed to be valuable to Microsoft, and for which it paid a lot of money — as though the coupons themselves were hot, as indeed they are. All of this giving away coupons activity by Microsoft is meaningless and useless. The coupons have no expiration date, and Microsoft can be sure that some coupons will be turned into Novell in return for software after the effective date of GPL 3. Once that has happened, patent defenses will, under the license, have moved out into the broad community and be available to anybody who Microsoft should ever sue for infringement.

“Our goal, in other words, is to add one more layer of probable defense against the Microsoft patent aggression, which Microsoft has just been busy thumping its tub about this week. So, in summary, Novell will be protected for the long haul, and Microsoft will be endangered for the long haul by GPL 3, and that’s as it should be.”

Το θέμα είναι ότι όχι σύμφωνα με το παρών πρόχειρο της επερχόμενης GPL 3 υπάρχει ειδική αναφορά σε θέματα πατεντών:

Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under the contributor’s essential patent claims in its contribution, to make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contribution.

For purposes of the following three paragraphs, a “patent license” means a patent license, a covenant not to bring suit for patent infringement, or any other express agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent.

If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a patent license, and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a publicly available network server or other readily accessible means, then you must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so available, or (2) disclaim the patent license for this particular work, or (3) arrange, in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License, to extend the patent license to downstream recipients. “Knowingly relying” means you have actual knowledge that, but for the patent license, your conveying the covered work in a country, or your recipient’s use of the covered work in a country, would infringe one or more identifiable patents in that country that you have reason to believe are valid.

If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a patent license providing freedom to use, propagate, modify or convey a specific copy of the covered work to any of the parties receiving the covered work, then the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered work and works based on it.

You may not convey a covered work if you are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties who would receive the covered work from you, a patent license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by you, and/or copies made from those, or (b) primarily for and in connection with specific products or compilations that contain the covered work, which license does not cover, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on the non-exercise of any of the rights that are specifically granted to recipients of the covered work under this License[, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent license was granted, prior to March 28, 2007].

Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law.

Και από ότι μπορώ να καταλάβω με τα ελάχιστα αγγλικά μου αυτό το κομμάτι που είναι έντονα γραμμένο ουσιαστικά φωτογραφίζει την συμφωνία MS-Novell?

Αν τώρα ανατρέξει κανείς στο κείμενο που έχει η ίδια η Novell στο site της σχετικά με την συμφωνία θα δει αυτό το κομμάτι:

Under the business collaboration agreement, the companies will pursue a variety of joint marketing activities to promote the adoption of the technologies they are collaborating on. In addition, Microsoft will purchase a quantity of coupons from Novell that entitle the recipient to a one-year subscription for maintenance and updates to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Microsoft will annually make available approximately 70,000 of these coupons to customers, with a mix of priority and standard support services. By providing its customers with these coupons, Microsoft is enabling companies to benefit from the use of the new software solutions developed through the collaborative research effort, as well as a version of Linux that is covered with respect to Microsoft’s intellectual property rights.

Άρα έχουμε δύο πιθανότητες σε περίπτωση που η GPL 3 υιοθετηθεί, το SLES της Novell παραμένει στην παλιά GPL (τρέχουσα) ή το Novell SLED προχωράει (όλο η κομμάτια του όπως ο πυρήνας) κάποιος πέρνει κουπόνι υποστήριξης για το καινούριο λογισμικό και η Microsoft έμεσα αναγνωρίζει ότι δεν έχει αξιώσεις για πατέντες στο Linux?

Εεεε ναι, φυσικά η Novell μπορεί (θεωρητικά) να πάρει όλο το κώδικα που έχει γραφτεί με την τρέχουσα άδεια και να συνεχίσει να τον γράφει με αυτήν απομονομένη από τους υπόλοιπους αλλά νομίζω ότι αν και μεγάλη εταιρεία δεν είναι και τόσο μεγάλη. Θέλω να πιστεύω ότι:

1)παρά την περιπλοκότητα της η GPL 3 θα υιοθετηθεί τελικά από την κοινότητα

2)η Novell θα προχωρήσει σε ενσωμάτωση κώδικα που βρίσκεται κάτω από την άδεια GPL v3 στο SLES

Κίνηση Ματ; δεν ξέρω αλλά τουλάχιστον όλα τα σκακιστικά προγράμματα του Linux μου κάνουν Ματ σε μερικές κινήσεις.

Φυσικά τα πιθανά σενάρια είναι πάρα πολλά αλλά δεν βλέπω σε κανένα το ανοιχτό λογισμικό να δέχεται σοβαρά πλήγματα. Εσείς;