“A lot of noise is made about open source software (OSS) and
intellectual property (IP) and the risk inherent in large
enterprises using OSS. The high tech headlines are full of news of
the SCO Group suit against IBM, large vendors like Microsoft
offering unlimited indemnifications against IP suits while claiming
people will likely be sued over OSS, and the like.“The rhetoric follows the logic:
- “OSS developers may be trespassing on all sorts of
patents.- “OSS developers obviously (sic) don’t care about property.
- “Customers using OSS therefore run the risk of patent
infringement suits…”