Summary: KDE joins OIN (Open Invention Network), the defensive patent pool which seems to be a concerning development to foes of GNU/Linux

THE OIN is on a roll. Some days ago the 'umbrella' organisation of LibreOffice joined the OIN following several others who sought defence from the patents Novell tactlessly gave to Microsoft et al [1, 2]. The H is yet another publication which covered it following Glyn Moody's claims that the OIN is "in the spotlight" amidst interesting new developments. We could not be happier seeing that Microsoft Florian loathes the OIN because it means that OIN is indeed harming Microsoft's agenda. OIN is mostly the creation of IBM (Rosenthal roots) and whilst IBM is not against software patents, they would have prevailed in the US even without IBM's involvement, so IBM's engagement in defence of Free software using patents is a nice addition to its high-profile sponsorship of the FSF, which praises OIN on occasions (Microsoft Florian mocks the FSF, just as he mocks anything that's a threat to Microsoft because it cannot embrace and extend it).

The latest addition to OIN is KDE, which had the news announced here, discussed in some places like this LWN discussion thread, and then covered here:

Open Invention Network (OIN), the company formed to enable and protect Linux, today extended its community with the signing of KDE as a licensee. By becoming a licensee, KDE has joined the growing list of organizations that recognize the importance of leveraging the Open Invention Network to further spur open source innovation.

The 'smell test' for institutions that claim to be supporting software freedom often ought to be Microsoft's reaction, applied in reverse. Later on we'll show that EIFv2 is bad news, based on Microsoft's reactionary statement. ⬆