THE PATENT LINE
THE PATENT LINE
Many have begun to wonder whether the dark predictions regarding Linux patent infringement reflect a real danger, or whether the patent doomsday talk is intended primarily as a means for raising public awareness. The answer is that no one knows for sure – and the reason no one knows is perhaps the most unsettling part of the story. It was announced recently that Linux may infringe on as many as 283 patents. If you followed the story, you’ll recall that few details emerged as to which parts of Linux infringe on which patents. The reason for this lack of information is that, strangely, the more you know about patents, the more they can hurt you. US patent law imposes harsher penalties on those who violate patents knowingly than on those who violate without specific knowledge of the infringement. In other words, if you use or distribute Linux, you’d better avoid any specific knowledge of specific patent violations.
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
News
-
GitLabs Drops Pricing after Microsoft, GitHub Acquisition
GitLabs is creating more incentives for users to switch from GitHub.
-
KDE Plasma 5.13 Is Here
The desktop environment is designed to be more resource efficient.
-
SUSE Forks Red Hat’s Spacewalk Project
SUSE relies heavily on the project for its own SUSE Manager.
-
openSUSE Leap 15 Announced
The release was announced at the openSUSE Conference in Prague, Czech Republic.
-
SoftMaker FreeOffice 2018 for Linux
SoftMaker Software GmbH has announced FreeOffice 2018, a free of cost office suite for Linux.
-
A New CentOS
Latest version of the community Linux based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5
-
Ubuntu 18.04 Released
“Bionic Beaver” comes with hardware-focused improvements and Gnome as the default shell.
-
Richard Stallman Calls Azure Sphere OS a Positive Step
Stallman is glad that Microsoft will respect user’s freedom.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 Released
The latest release is focused on hybrid cloud.
-
Microsoft Releases a Linux-Based OS
The company is building a new IoT environment powered by Linux.