IBM et al hoard Linux patents
Five big tech companies - IBM, Sony, Phillips, Red Hat and Novell - have announced funding for a project to secure patents related to Linux, in order to minimise the legal risk associated with OSS. Licenses to use the patents will then be granted, royalty-free, to users in return for a gurantee that they do not attempt to assert ownership of the patents.
There’s more at eWeek and Information Week (amusingly, the first version of that article named Microsoft as one of the main benefactors - it’s since been corrected).
There’s also a widely ridiculed interview with, as The Inq put it, a suit from SAP, riffing on a familiar theme - open source destroys innovation, undermines information societies and is tantamount to “IP socialism”. At least it’s only socialism this time, rather than full on communism. If you’ve got time on your hands, there’s some reaction at Slashdot.