I'm with Ben -- RH's patents may be good
I'm willing to see what RH does here. There's already a pretty good precedent from Raph Levien on [link|http://www.levien.com/patents.html|licensing patents for free software]. Granted, Raph limits his license to software under the GPL, but given that other licenses don't offer the same protections that the GPL does for preserving state as free software, and that this covers ~85%-90% of all free software, it's a pretty good proxy.
The patent game is such that the best way to fight is to play. Actually, this isn't too different from the copyright arena. The GPL doesn't disclaim copyright, it utilizes it in a way that assures benefit to the public at large, rather than just the copyright holder.
The key is how RH licenses this technology, and how it works to assure that the patents can't fall into other hands and be used against free software. This last is a major concern. Grants now must be global (within the scope of free software), permanent, and non-revocable.
--
Karsten M. Self [link|mailto:kmself@ix.netcom.com|kmself@ix.netcom.com]
[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|[link|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/|http://kmself.home.netcom.com/]]
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
Keep software free. Oppose the CBDTPA. Kill S.2048 dead.
[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|[link|http://www.eff.org/alerts/20020322_eff_cbdtpa_alert.html|http://www.eff.org/...a_alert.html]]