On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Johnny Hughes <johnny@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
> It fits in fine until Oracle decides that it wants to sue because they
> think there is some money to be made. Then APIs are patentable, GPL does
> not give patent permissions, etc. The lawsuits will then fly.
You could make exactly that same argument about Linux, and probably on
better legal grounds except that SCO ran out of money before winning a
case - but somebody, somewhere must own those rights now.
Anyone can sue anyone else for anything. At least in the Oracle/java
case there are some court decisions falling out that seem to limit the
potential damage.
> If they think there is $$$ for them, they will pull the same thing again
> in a heartbeat ... be it Java or MySQL or Berkley DB. They gave up Open
> Office to the Apache Foundation because of the mass exodus of
> developers, or it would be in the same boat. I just do not trust them.
The same risk applies to everything, opensource or not. Someone can
always appear claiming to own a patent covering the functionality. In
most opensource projects, no one checks, and even where they do it is
possible to have mistakes or differences of opinion.
--
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell@xxxxxxxxx
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