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Sept 24 Is World Day Against Software Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| "Veteran European anti-software patent campaigners have launched the World
| Day against Software Patents. They say, 'The issue of software patents is a
| global one, and several governments and patent offices around the world
| continue to grant software & business method patents on a daily basis; they
| are pushing for legal codification of the practice, such as currently in New
| Zealand and India.
`----
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/09/23/2228237.shtml
From:
http://www.ibiblio.org/patents/txt/020294.txt
,----[ Quote ]
| Oracle Corporation opposes the patentability of software. The Company
| believes that existing copyright law and available trade secret
| protections, as opposed to patent law, are better suited to protecting
| computer software developments.
|
| […]
|
| Compared to adequate copyright and trade secret protections, patent
| protection is excessively broad and enormously expensive.
|
| CHANGING THE PATENT SYSTEM
|
| Oracle has recommended that patent protection not be provided for
| computer software or computer software algorithms, for the reasons
| described above.
`----
Recent:
Oracle joins Linux patent commons
,----[ Quote ]
| OIN members -- which currently include IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips,
| Red Hat, and Sony -- agree to assign software patents that might
| affect Linux to the OIN. These patents can then be used by anyone
| in Linux without having to pay any royalty fees or having to worry
| about future law suits.
`----
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3296732522.html
Old:
Inside Oracle's bombshell plan to support Red Hat
,----[ Quote ]
| Could you briefly describe what Oracle is doing with regard to
| Red Hat Linux?
|
| Tony Iams: Oracle is exploiting the open source business model
| to try and offer a competitive alternative to Red Hat for
| supporting Linux. This is something that is clearly enabled by
| the open source model where a vendor such as Red Hat offers a
| product that virtually anyone else can recreate under their
| own brand. They can take the exact same technology that Red
| Hat has and offer their own version of it, under their own
| brand, and with their own support program, without having to
| become too deeply involved with the development.
|
| [...]
|
| Oracle says it will provide full indemnification or legal
| protections for its users. Do you expect Oracle to provide
| better legal protections than Red Hat and other Linux
| distribution providers?
|
| Iams: It's not clear. The [intellectual property] questions
| here run quite deep and are potentially quite far reaching
| when you examine the impact of patents and so on. And Oracle
| clearly has a lot of intellectual property and thus they're
| in a position to provide some degree of protection. But they
| compete with Microsoft as well and so to what extent they're
| going to take sides in this potential conflict remains to be
| seen. Anytime there is a risk of a patent war starting you
| have to look at where the arsenals of patents are and who
| might potentially participate and take which side and I think
| it's too early to tell.
`----
http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid41_gci1232341,00.html
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