-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
[Older:] Mainframe emulator goes commercial
,----[ Quote ]
| TurboHercules is co-headquartered in Paris,
| France, where Bowler moved after he left
| the United Kingdom, and in Seattle,
| Washington, in close proximity to the one
| big software company that has in the past
| taken a shining to anything that gave Big
| Blue some grief, particularly with
| mainframes. (Yes, we mean Microsoft).
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/25/turbohercules_goes_commercial/
IBM vs. TurboHercules: Our story thus far...
http://www.linux-magazine.com/Online/News/IBM-vs.-TurboHercules-Our-story-thus-far
IBM: Open Sourceâs Friend or Foe?
http://robertogaloppini.net/2010/04/06/ibm-open-sources-friend-or-foe/
IBM says it won't sue to protect open-source patents
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9175058/IBM_says_it_won_t_sue_to_protect_open_source_patents_
â When Reptiles Attack: Has IBM Tired Of FOSS?
,----[ Quote ]
| Despite the temptation to believe that some
| companies are unequivocal supporters of
| free and open source software, we should
| never forget that all for-profit companies
| are actually reptiles, acting instinctively
| on behalf of their shareholders and not
| acting on the basis of intellectual or
| philosophical insight. An expression of
| support will inevitably be a statement by a
| group of people within the company,
| motivated by a business activity. It will
| have been made in the context of a set of
| tensions between different priorities and
| with other groups of people in the same
| company. It will be the direction instinct
| has been steered by the availability of
| âfoodâ and the presence of âthreatâ. Every
| expression of support â or act of
| aggression â needs to be seen in that
| light.
|
| An important part of my job at Sun was to
| monitor actions they took that affected
| communities. I monitored the flow of
| requests to use and release open source
| code, ran the Ombudsman service so that I
| was first to hear of community issues, and
| acted as a (mostly!) âtrusted friendâ to
| Sunâs legal staff prior to any action they
| took. At regular intervals throughout my
| five year tenure, I spoke up for
| communities and ensured that the actions
| taken in Sunâs name were not harmful to a
| community or Sunâs FOSS reputation. On some
| occasions I even had to request executive
| back-up for my position, in effect
| requesting a veto power.
|
| Regardless of the merits of IBMâs case
| against TurboHercules, the fact the
| incident has happened at all is an
| important signal. I canât for a moment
| believe this is the first time since IBMâs
| patent pledge that any part of the company
| has wanted to act against a community
| participant. We can see the tension between
| the statement Dan Frye makes through the
| Linux Foundation and the statement of
| another IBM spokesperson in the WSJ
| attempting to say the Pledge doesnât apply
| to everyone. To hazard a guess, the
| competition is now characterised by Google
| â a huge user of and contributor to open
| source software â instead of IBMâs old
| foes, Microsoft and Solaris.
`----
http://webmink.com/2010/04/08/reptile-attack/
Is IBM splitting hairs with open source?
,----[ Quote ]
| Itâs no secret that Iâm a big Free Software
| fan. Itâs no secret that IBM is a giant
| company with more money than I can possibly
| imagine. So I was pretty happy in 2005 when
| IBM, in an obvious PR stunt to get buddy-
| buddy with the open source community, made
| its Statement of Non-Assertion of Named
| Patents Against OSS, ostensibly saying that
| it would permit open source projects to use
| any of the items covered by those patents
| without risk of penalty or lawsuit. Yay!
| Finally, a BigCo getting it and doing the
| right thing! But five years is a long time,
| people come and go, and promises can be
| forgotten. IBM has lately threatened to sue
| someone for infringement of a lot of IBM
| patents, including at least two that were
| included in the Non-Assertion statement.
|
| [...]
|
| More plausibly, what I think is going on
| here is one of two things. Either the
| lawyers got a little over-excited in
| creating the non-exclusive list of patents
| used to threaten TurboHercules and included
| two patents covered by the Non-Assertion
| statement; or IBM thinks theyâre free to
| sue the company, and not the open source
| project itself, for the patent
| infringement. My guess is itâs the latter.
`----
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/08/is-ibm-splitting-hairs-with-open-source/
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
iEYEARECAAYFAkvAKPAACgkQU4xAY3RXLo7/GQCbBsrMexOIJWVYnnMQ6+4+INz5
0gwAn1JqfyXe5S6gPO9x58nccfOHiowd
=dP8M
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
|
