Inspur, China's Largest Cloud Hardware Vendor, Joins Open-Source Patent Consortium

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ZDNet: The Open Invention Network (OIN) defends the intellectual property (IP) rights of Linux and open-source software developers from patent trolls and the like. This is a global fight and now the OIN has a new, powerful allied member in China: Inspur. Inspur is a leading worldwide provider and China's leading data center infrastructure, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI) server providers. While not a household name like Lenovo, Inspur ranks among the world's top-three server manufacturers.

Inspur is only the latest of many companies to join the OIN. Besides such primarily hardware-oriented companies as Inspur, Baidu, China's largest search engine company, and global banks such as Barclays and the TD Bank Group, have joined the OIN. In 2021, companies far removed from traditional Linux companies such as Canonical, Red Hat, and SUSE all recognize Linux and OSS's importance. Donny Zhang, VP of Inspur information, said, "Linux and open source are critical elements in technologies which we are developing and provisioning. By joining the Open Invention Network, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to innovation, and supporting it with patent non-aggression in core Linux and adjacent open-source software." "Linux is rewriting what is possible in infrastructure computing," says OIN CEO Keith Bergelt. "OSS-based cloud computing and on-premise data centers are driving down the cost-per-compute while significantly increasing businesses' ability to provision AI and machine-learning (ML) capabilities. We appreciate Inspur's participation in joining OIN and demonstrating its commitment to innovation and patent non-aggression in open source."

Yeah Right

[hoofie]

Donny Zhang, VP of Inspur information, said, "Linux and open source are critical elements in technologies which we are developing and provisioning. By joining the Open Invention Network, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to ripping off someone else's work and planting state-level surveillance and logic bombs in core Linux and adjacent open-source software."

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

Chinese companies are starting to embrace open source. They see it as a way to engage with customers around the globe, and to deal with accusations that their products are untrustworthy.

They are also finding that being open source can have a positive effect on sales, e.g. Creality 3D printers are industry leading and much of that is due to them being open and easy to modify. Modifications that improve them are often folded into the next revision of the product, meaning Creality gets R&D for free and a g

Welcome development

[spinitch]

In general a favorable welcome development. Less security concerns good for adoption scale.

What does the GPL say about this

[boudie2]

Saw this on wikipedia. "In June 2020, the United States Department of Defense published a list of Chinese companies operating in the U.S. that have ties to the People's Liberation Army, which included Inspur. In November 2020, Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the U.S. Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army." But there doesn't seem much interest in this story.

Letting the CCP''s nose under the tent

[gtall]

Most companies in China are seen by the CCP as potential offensive vectors for attacking the West. This is a mistake.

Re:

[backslashdot]

You seem to think the Chinese government is a lot more organized than it actually is.