The patent pool being built by the
Open Source Development Labs
(OSDL) is useless in the defence against
Microsoft, according to
open source activist Bruce
Perens speaking at the
LinuxWorld
conference in San Francisco.
"The patents come from the wrong people," he said during a meeting with
reporters, because only friends of open source will submit to the pool.
The pool also is useless as a defence against patent claims because most of
the main patent holders have cross licensing deals with each other.
This means that large companies, including
Microsoft,
IBM and
HP, have agreed to let the
others use their patents.
"If Microsoft turns out to be the aggressor, that does not help," noted
Perens. "The pool unfortunately turns out to be spitting in the wind."
OSDL unveiled the Patent Commons Project on Tuesday that will build a library
of patents that have been pledged to open source including the conditions of
that pledge.
The initiative is an attempt to decrease the threat of software patents
against open source projects, which is effectively intended to prevent a repeat
of the legal action that SCO undertook against Linux.
"You have this skeleton in the closet," warned Perens. "Every open source
programme of any significant size infringes on tens or hundreds of patents."
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