[ffii] Linus: Kernel-Entwicklung legal nicht mehr moeglich (fwd)

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 22 Aug 2002 00:19:40 +0200
From: PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>
To: swpat@ffii.org
Cc: neues@ffii.org
Subject: [ffii] Linus: Kernel-Entwicklung legal nicht mehr moeglich

Unter

        http://lwn.net/Articles/7001/

meint Linus Torvalds, Chefentwickler des Betriebssystemkerns Linux,
die Weiterentwicklung sei schon jetzt nicht mehr ohne ständige
Patentverletzung möglich, und man tue gut daran, die Patente so zu
verletzen wie sie kommen und abzuwarten, dass man verklagt wird.
Wer zu viel von Patenten wisse, könne gar nichts mehr entwickeln und
gehe zu hohe Risiken im Falle einer Klage ein.  Man könne die
Patentklagen nur noch nehmen, wie sie kommen und müsse im Zweifelsfall
überlegen, mit welchen mafiösen Methoden (bishin zum Anheuern von
Schlägern) man notfalls dagegen vorgehen kann.

Letztes Jahr warnte Daniel Rödding einmal, wie die Softwarepatente die
Rechtskultur vor die Hunde gehen lassen und malte dazu ein Szenario
aus, in dem Leute genau das tun, wovon Torvalds hier redet.  Natürlich
nahmen einige Patentanwälte in unserem Forum dies als Anlass, sich für
physisch bedroht zu erklären und uns zu diffamieren.  Wer hätte
gedacht, dass man so kurz darauf das gleiche aus dem Munde berühmter
Leute als halb ernst gemeinte Empfehlung hören würde?


   Memory management and patents


   Linux VM hackers are engaged in ongoing discussions on both large page
   support (covered last week) and improving the performance of the new
   reverse mapping mechanism. That conversation slowed down, however,
   when Alan Cox pointed out that a number of the techniques being
   discussed are covered by SGI patents. In fact, a closer look by Daniel
   Phillips shows that a number of existing Linux technologies, including
   reverse mapping in general and the buddy allocator, are covered by
   these patents. This is a problem, he said, that we can't ignore.

   That was Linus's cue to jump in with his policy on software patents
   and kernel code:

   I do not look up any patents on _principle_, because (a) it's a
   horrible waste of time and (b) I don't want to know.

   The fact is, technical people are better off not looking at patents.
   If you don't know what they cover and where they are, you won't be
   knowingly infringing on them. If somebody sues you, you change the
   algorithm or you just hire a hit-man to whack the stupid git.

   Linus followed up with a note that the above "may not be legally
   tenable advice." But he sticks by his point that, anymore, it's
   impossible to write an interesting program without running into
   somebody's patent. Rather than worry about it, it's better to just
   proceed and deal with any problems as they emerge.

   This is probably the only rational approach; otherwise kernel hackers
   would go nuts trying to find and avoid all of the applicable patents.
   It's probably only a matter of time, though, until one of these
   patents bites the kernel in a big way - at least in the U.S. Those are
   the times we live in, though.

   Comments (3 posted)

   NFSv4 is coming
   The integration of an NFS version 4 implementation into the Linux
   kernel got one step closer this week when Kendrick Smith announced the
   availability of a set of patches for 2.5.31. These patches are not for
   casual users quite yet - there are 38 of them, they only implement a
   small part of the NFSv4 protocol, and a fair amount of work is needed
   to get it all going. The purpose of this set of patches is to get a
   conversation started toward the merging of NFSv4 into the kernel. Once
   the minimal code is in, the rest of the protocol (which works in a 2.4
   version of the patch) can be ported forward and merged.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII e.V. und Eurolinux-Allianz            +49-89-12789608
Innovation vs Patentinflation                       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120000 Stimmen 400 Firmen gegen Logikpatente    http://www.noepatents.org/
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