"Finally, it is believed that a substantial amount of code in
Linux actually may belong to Sun and, with this acquisition, could
belong to Oracle. While I don't expect a SCO moment, I would expect
Oracle to use it as a bargaining chip to drive Linux in a direction
it felt benefitted the firm.
""It is believed"?? By whom? Not by me, and I surely know quite
a lot about the subject. I think I'd have heard. "Belong" in what
sense? This claim will elicit strong guffaws from the guys who
actually write Linux, but for any who might be tempted to believe
such imaginings, let me explain some things, six reasons why this
scenario is far-fetched and most likely impossible even if it were
true.
"First, does he means patents or copyrights or what? If patents,
Sun's Jonathan Schwartz already made a public promise to use its
patent portfolio to defend and protect both Red Hat and Ubuntu
Linux against *any* patent threats. The Linux community relied upon
that promise, and it would, I think, be an uphill battle to sue
Linux over any of them now.
"The GPL provides patent protection. Yes, GPLv2 also. If you
doubt that, here's a paper you might find helpful, Potential
Defenses of Implied Patent License Under the GPL[PDF]. That's
written by two attorneys, Laura A. Majerus and Adam Pugh, and the
paper talks about defenses under GPLv2, the license that Linux is
provided under. Under GPLv3, the license is explicit, not just
implied, but there is protection under both of the licenses. So
Oracle is boxed in by the GPL, as is Sun or anyone who contributes
to the kernel under the GPL or distributes Linux."
