RedHat and software patents

[Alexandre Dulaunoy]

On Sat, 25 May 2002, Joerg Schilling wrote:

> >From: Loic Dachary <loic at gnu.org>
>
> >http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=2&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1='molnar+ingo'.IN.&s2='red+hat'&OS=IN/%22molnar+ingo%22+AND+%22red+hat%22&RS=IN/%22molnar+ingo%22+AND+%22red+hat%22
>
> >http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1='molnar+ingo'.IN.&s2='red+hat'&OS=IN/%22molnar+ingo%22+AND+%22red+hat%22&RS=IN/%22molnar+ingo%22+AND+%22red+hat%22
>
> >	The embodiments of the present invention described are
> >	implemented in a computing platform based on the computer
> >	operating system commonly known as 'Linux' that is available
> >	as open source directly over the Internet. Linux is also
> >	available through various vendors who provide service and
> >	support for the Linux operating system. Among these vendors
> >	are Red Hat, Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., the
> >	assignee of the present invention.
>
> I cannot see that the "inventor" is an RedHat employee, but...
>
> The sourcecode definitely has now been published so it is covered
> by the GPL. For this reason, the author grants royalty free use
> by anybody. He cannot earn money from this idea.
>
> BTW: Red Hat in general is not very GPL friendly...
>

	Are you sure of that ? I think RedHat is one of the only
GNU/Linux vendor that take into account the GNU General Public License.
Every part of code done by RedHat seems to be under the GNU General
Publice License. (from the installer to the tmpwatch command ;-)

	If you compare with other well-known distributor like SuSe that
make some proprietary software (yast[1-2]) including some of their install
software without to mention the copyrighted cd layout.

	Now, on the other side, the applicant of the patent is not RedHat
itself ? Maybe we have to contact Bob Young or maybe other well-known
developer at redhat like Dave Miller or Alan Cox ? Maybe to get an
official statement about this issue.

	Maybe they grant, on the other side, a RF (and not a RAND) license
for Free Software developer if they have really put these patents. (maybe we
could put them in http://www.ael.be/node.php?id=52)

	I fully agree that software patents are dangerous and must be
removed in any countries.

	I hope we can clarify the situation.

	adulau