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Dear Linux Magazine Reader,

Despite all the talk of alleged patent infringement issues with Linux, no one seems to have any details. Given that problems are everywhere and nobody has any real answers, I’ve always thought the Open Source community

should get off the defensive and start raising some new arguments. A closer look will reveal that patents are nowhere near the biggest risk a software customer will face. The GPL assures the right of the user to copy software. The closed source industry, on the other hand, makes if clear you are in big trouble if any software they sell your company gets copied. The chances of a customer getting sued for flakey and ill-defined patent nuances is extremely small, but the chances of a customer facing lawsuits for rogue employees pirating closed source software is very real.

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