Bonum Certa Men Certa

Dear Google: Please Abolish Software Patents, Don't 'Donate' Patent 'Protection'

God is Google



Summary: Google is playing 'patent God' by acquiring a monopoly on MapReduce and then pardoning those who worship its feet and don't pose a commercial threat

IT IS PROBABLY obvious by now that among the benefactors of the patent system there are the monopolies in their respective field (the other benefactors being the patent lawyers/patent trolls).



IBM's support of software patents (even in Europe!) is a serious offence against Free software's spirit and fundamental premise. Regarding the EPO, the president of the FFII wrote today that its position says: "a computer program is not excluded from patentability under Art52 if, when running on a computer, it causes a further technical effect" (this is the loophole companies exploit).

IBM excuses itself using a patent pool that Google joined after IBM had gotten the ball rolling. We're talking about OIN, which only reinforces software patents (it calls for "good" software patents) rather than burying this unjust lunacy. Ruby cannot abolish software patents because it has no lobbying power like IBM's or Microsoft's, so the Ruby Association too has just joined OIN.

By becoming a licensee, the Ruby Association has joined the growing list of companies that recognize the importance of leveraging the Open Invention Network to further spur open source innovation.


This is probably better than nothing but it is not the solution. IBM's so-called 'promise' regarding patents is not perfect either. IBM wants to have the cake (software patents) and eat it too.

Patents as 'Charity'



Over two years ago we started to criticise IBM for its silly press releases which claim credit for 'donating' access to patents. IBM merely 'gives back' something that it took away -- very much like the copyright cartel uses DRM to sell people back the "rights" they used to have. Disgusting.

IBM deserves no credit for 'donating' software patents; it should not apply for them in the first place and it ought to put its lobby where its mouth is; in other words, it should support Free/open source software by encouraging suitable laws.

We are saddened to see that Google is going down the same route as IBM. Here is Google 'granting a licence' to Hadoop:

Google has granted a license for one of its patents to the Apache Hadoop open source framework for distributed computing. Larry Rosen, the Apache Software Foundation's (ASF) legal counsel, says that several weeks ago he contacted Google about its recently granted MapReduce process patent – patent 7,650,331 ("System and method for efficient large-scale data processing") – for fear that it may be infringed by implementations of Hadoop or other Apache MapReduce projects.


This is also covered in [1, 2]. Google's support of software patents is nothing new. It begs for someone to ask the question, why get this patent in the first place and then make it look like charity?

That's what IBM does.

Google wants us to think along the lines of: "thank you so much, Google, for not suing over that monopoly you acquired on algorithms, using broken laws that could otherwise be mended."

“It also sends out the signal that companies which vend Linux support software patents, by practice.”The main problem we have with IBM's and Google's attitude is that this practice gives ammunition to Microsoft's similar tricks with its useless "Community Promise" and the likes of that. It also sends out the signal that companies which vend Linux support software patents, by practice. Later on, when Microsoft attacks Android with software patents (and by inference hurting Linux, which Android contains inside of it), the Linux defense is weakened, the obvious excuse being "hypocrisy" or whatever.

To Google's credit, it works on creating an "open source" codec (usually meaning Free software-friendly as there are no software patents) and it helped fund Ogg for small devices. According to this press release from a few days ago, a lot of money is being spent on codecs right now, due to software patents.

Xorcom, a privately-held manufacturer of business telephony interfaces and appliances based on Asterisk open source software, and Howler Technologies, the high definition voice and video transcoding company, and providers of a wide range of cost-effective, carrier-grade transcoding solutions to the telecoms industry, announced today that they have successfully completed interoperability testing between Xorcom’s IP-PBX models and Howler Technologies’ G.729 software codec for Asterisk, known as “Howlet”.

[...]

“Howlet allows Xorcom integrators to avoid the responsibility of paying the license fee for the Open Source version of the G.729 codec (for which initial license fees are approximately $25,000 – $30,000), since Howlet is GPLv2 compliant and includes the G.729 Patent Royalty,” notes Eran Gal, CEO, Xorcom. “It supports our standard software platforms — Asterisk, Elastix and trixbox — out-of-the-box, so implementation is a breeze.”


The codec conundrum is one that we covered 2 posts ago. Apple and Microsoft do a lot of damage there.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
 
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025