ONLamp: Patent Pools Offer Open Source A New Incentive--And a New Source of Power

"It's been talked about for years, and now there are well-endowed and well-researched organizations claiming to offer open source software some protection from patent lawsuits. The very announcement of these efforts--even before they have a chance to prove successful--are an historical watershed for open source and free software. For the first time you get back something tangible for open-sourcing. And this leads to another key change in the terrain: it now becomes critical how "open source" is defined, and who has the power to define it.

"The two patent pool projects concerned here--open source's shining knights in armor--are the Patent Commons Project and the Open Invention Network..."

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Related Stories:

• IT-Analysis: Can Open Invention Network Succeed?(Nov 15, 2005)
• Free Software Magazine: Patents Kill(Nov 10, 2005)
• InfoWorld: Of Patent Pools and Open Source(Nov 08, 2005)
• eWeek: Stop the Software Patent Madness Now(Nov 04, 2005)