Disinformation and Marketing Spam From and For OIN (GAFAM's and IBM's Weapon Against Free Software Activists and Reformists Against Software Patents)
This is not an "OIN sez" (says) rebuttal because we don't want to give visibility to the obvious lies
We have written a great deal about OIN, whose first CEO was just a 'suit' from IBM. That's the genesis or origin story. IBM is the biggest hoarder of patents, it does not view any patents as a problem.
OIN exists not to protect the Free software community; it helps GAFAM monopolies firm up their grip on projects and their policies.
Falsely described as a legal shield, it lacks "case studies", it only holds a "portfolio" of software patents ("aggregation").
That Steven Vaughan-Nichols does a puff piece for them is hardly surprising because he has long been their mouthpiece with "access" and his repertoire includes defaming the well known opponents of software patents. To understand why the following piece was published all one needs to do is, as usual, follow the money. Try to understand those corporate ads and remember who sponsors OIN, what role the Linux Foundation plays etc.
We don't wish to do a one-by-line rebuttal (we could, it would be very long). It's full of marketing nonsense. It's a gish-gallop. Since OIN members sometimes sue one another even the summary - not just the headline - is false.
One reader dubbed it "disnfo on software patents, how they work, and how NPEs work" (patent trolls).
To be very clear, OIN can do nothing about patent trolls.
When a patent troll attacked GNOME some years ago the patent troll ended up keeping the software patents. OIN did no harm to him and as recently as today we see this report about him attacking some more entities using his army of proxies ("Leigh M. Rothschild entity, Touchpoint Projection, cybersecurity patent challenge instituted" by Unified Patents).
I saw firsthand how useless OIN can be against trolls; I spoke to the CEO on the phone a few times and exchanged E-mails. OIN is practically useless. When confronting trolls behind the scenes one can just see 'suits'.
If you know nothing about OIN, please just remember it exists to serve GAFAM and IBM et al. It does not exist for you, personally, and it never will. Its staff is even whitewashing Microsoft in public. These people are in it for the Big Money, not for your legal safety.
The reader said this needs debunking, but to debunk we'd have to repeat some lies. We'd rather not.
Software patents need to die. OIN won't do it. It's not even interested.
All in all, this anniversary is just a PR stunt with revisionism. Sort of like what Microsoft did a few weeks ago. █