How IP Law Helps FOSS Communities 98
dp619 writes "Fighting against software patents (New Zealand has banned them) tends to blind FOSS communities to aspects of IP law that actually serve them well. While certainly not perfect, patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret law each has something to offer FOSS communities. Penn State law professor Clark Asay wrote a guest post for the Outercurve Foundation briefly describing some of the ways in IP law can help open source developers."
Re:Still don't see patents helping (Score:5, Interesting)
That's how all of his points shake out. Every single one boiled down to... "Sure this law nearly turns thinking into crime, but there are some exceptions that you can work in". The FOSS philosophy requires no law to exist. For-profit software couldn't exist without legal protection. I'm not saying for-profit software is bad, but it certainly requires legal protection to sell something that requires almost no physical effort to reproduce.
The question we can't get any real public dialog on is "How much protection is the right amount to create the world we want to live in?"
Re:Ain't that a surprise.. not.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Outercurve's president seems to be the Apache Software Foundation's cofounder though.
Jim Jagielski, a co-founder of the Apache Software Foundation; a director of the Open Source Initiative; and currently a consulting software engineer for Linux giant Red Hat is now president of the Microsoft-sponsored, open-source friendly Outercurve Foundation's Board of Directors.
http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-sponsored-outercurve-foundation-turns-to-apache-for-leadership-7000017596/ [zdnet.com]