Bonum Certa Men Certa

Ongoing (Albeit Secret) Campaign of Patent Extortion Against GNU/Linux Distributions Using Software Patents, Even Expired Ones in Europe

OIN is MIA, as usual (it exists to protect monopolies, not GNU/Linux)

Danish Post Letter Boxes



Summary: GNU/Linux distros attacked by software patents, even in Europe where no such patents are supposed to exist (or have any legal bearing)

JUST over a month ago Techrights became aware of a serious issue, which had been going on for months prior. The public was never made aware and the message we received was private. This article will name neither the distributions nor the aggressors, as naming either might reveal the nature of an ongoing dispute and have a negative impact on the outcome.



"Are they trying or at least hoping to make it sufficiently uncomfortable if not stressful for small (community-based) distros of GNU/Linux to the point were they shyly shut down, going offline without explaining the real reason (for fear of being sued as means of retribution, akin to NDAs)?"As a little recap, the EPO under the corrupt management of Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos has been gleefully granting software patents in Europe. Not many people are aware of the negative consequences (or truly care). Those have a highly detrimental effect on software developers and packagers across Europe. The impact is very negative when it comes to Free software and proprietary software alike. It harms European competitiveness and harms the profession (programming) globally. Who benefits? A bunch of parasites who cannot code and never coded anything.

To quote a message that we received, a patent troll "started harassing me and stating that I must license their [redacted] patents. But these are software patents and I am based in [redacted]. We are a small, open source project, so I don’t know what their game is. They’re asking for a couple of million dollars, based on fees from every download, including [redacted] downloads which we release at no charge."

Letter from trollIt is a GNU/Linux distro used by a lot of people. A lot of people.

"My worry," said the person on the receiving end of threats, "is that we may look like an easy target or they’re trying to set a precedent. Despite these software patents not being valid as pure software patents, I can see that they are enjoying success in German courts such as Mannheim and Düsseldorf."

Are patent trolls and their legal representatives getting so bored and unoccupied during the pandemic that they're started a Cold War against GNU/Linux?

On the nature of the threats received: "What worries me is that they’re emailing me, and not serving me by paper. German courts have considered this to be sufficient and they’ve already stated that I am obligated to reply and that they’ve made me a FRAND offer. But some of these patents have expired and I do not understand how this can be FRAND if they are forcing me to license expired patents. Further — I can’t see how this can be FRAND when they’re not consistently enforcing any level of compliance across other companies and open source projects. I’d not wish this on my worst enemy, but it is surprising that Canonical / Ubuntu are skirting legal issues but we (a small project) are in such a predicament."

Or else!OIN membership has apparently not prevented this. Not at all. We'll hopefully have an update on this some time soon. As a reminder, Canonical / Ubuntu went as far as licensing lousy codecs (software patents) from Microsoft more than a decade ago. Canonical / Ubuntu isn't what it seems on the surface and it never really helped the battle against software patents.

Are they trying or at least hoping to make it sufficiently uncomfortable if not stressful for small (community-based) distros of GNU/Linux to the point were they shyly shut down, going offline without explaining the real reason (for fear of being sued as means of retribution, akin to NDAs)? If so, this would not be unprecedented in relation to Free software projects. We covered many examples in the distant past.

Can the leadership of the aggressor shed a light/clue regarding motivations? Is this a proxy battle in a bigger war? What's the endgame here?

Stay tuned. We cannot say much more at this point (not safely anyway, without potentially causing harm by escalation).

Recent Techrights' Posts

In Some Parts of the World, Like Central America and South America, Microsoft is Irrelevant on the Web
Nadella has bet the farm on a Ponzi scheme
There's Not Much Time Left for President Biden to Pardon Julian Assange and Signal to Journalists That Exposing States' Crimes or Rich People's Misbehaviour is Lawful
Apathy towards this is part of the problem
Underpaid and Inexperienced Workers Overwhelm the EPO, Granting Many Invalid Patents and Placing Pressure on Veteran Examiners
So-called "production" (giving monopolies) pressure is "compromising the quality of our products" [sic] according to a new report
 
Gemini Links 16/12/2024: Invisibles and 20 Years of GNU/Linux on the Desktop
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows Fell From 98% to Less Than 15% (in 15 Years in Africa)
Operating System Market Share Africa
Swaziland: GNU/Linux Leaps to 7.24%, Based on statCounter
Remember that Microsoft had many layoffs this year in Africa
A Birthday Wish
My birthday is a few hours away
[Meme] Definitely Not Your Role Models
Hypocrite Neckbeard Meme
Changes or Variation of Logo at the FSF as 40th Anniversary is Near (Months Away)
Next year the FSF turns 40
Mobile Usage Nearly 90% in Maharlika (Philippines)?
Microsoft has become just a footnote
Push Back and Become More Vocal for LLM Abuse and Misuse to Stop
We hope that more people out there (sites too) will call out the people who saturate particular topics on the Web with machine-generated junk
The Media Failed to Hold GAFAM Accountable (and Now It Suffers From It and For It)
This recognition of the problem emboldens us to carry on
Botswana: New Highs for GNU/Linux, All-Time Lows for Microsoft
No wonder Microsoft has so many layoffs in Africa this year
Links 16/12/2024: Skinnerboxes ("Smart" "Phones") and Control Social Media Blamed for Fights
Links for the day
Reminder: The Microsoft Person Who Used OpenAI for En Masse GPL Violations Told the Whistleblower to Kill Herself
The evidence (real message)
Links 16/12/2024: emacs, Drawabox, “You Should Have Your Own Website”
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft is Not a Country
Reporting crimes is essential for democracy
Image Fusion is Not 'AI' (LLMs Aren't Either)
Such fakes can (and always could) be done by a digital artist, it's just a little more expensive and time-consuming
GNU/Linux at New Highs in Bosnia And Herzegovina
Quite a few Balkan nations show high adoption rates for GNU/Linux
From Scientists to Pigeons: The EPO Has Turned Patent Examination Into a Process Made by Computers and Improperly Trained Staff Which Doesn't Meet the Requirements of the European Patent Convention (EPC)
Might as well abolish this entire system if this is the current trajectory
Razik Menidjel Will No Longer be Chief Operating Officer Operations at the EPO
What does the EPC say about slop and should it be updated to deal with trouble such as slop?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, December 15, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, December 15, 2024
Links 15/12/2024: Social Control Media Disarray and Software Patent Eligibility Attempted by Litigation Maximalists
Links for the day
Links 15/12/2024: "Internet Era Might Be History's Least-Documented Period", Microsoft’s Telecom Biz Practically Dead
Links for the day
Links 15/12/2024: SQLite Bootstrap, More Terminals, Helix Themes
Links for the day
Two Laptops Up and Running (No Reboots) Since 2023
my main laptops, "vonick" and "bubi", haven't been rebooted since 2023
Links 14/12/2024: Yoon Impeached, "Intel's Death", and "Hey Hi" Hype Causes Warming and Pollution
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 14, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, December 14, 2024
Today's Slopwatch
MaKenna Hensley's latest
"Journalism in Twitter" is a Paradox
"I am writing an article" is not the same as "I am writing a set of tweets" (usually random thoughts and unverified assertions, citing other unverified assertions)
Playing Social Control Media 'Games' Instead of Writing Articles
someone will need to run two sites. One is "In Support of Richard Stallman", which is run by oneself, and other is "Stallman Support".
The Future of the World Wide Web is Just 'Webapps' in Chrome, Not Web Pages in One's Browser of Choice
The monoculture gets worse, not better
The Patent Litigation 'Industry' Controls the European Patent Office (Vendor Capture) and Everyone Suffers, Even the European Union
Today we relay an EPO publications dated just 4 days ago (this past Tuesday)
EPO Corruption is a Real Threat to the European Union (EU). The EPO Helps Russia. If It Does Not Reform or Reboot, It Can Contribute to the Collapse of the EU and UPC (Which Was Never Legal or Even Constitutional, It's a Captured Kangaroo Court Controlled by the Patent Litigation Industry).
second-largest institution in Europe
Linux is Becoming Non-free Software and the So-called 'Linux' Foundation Likes It That Way (It's Fronting for Companies That Violate the GPL, the Licence of Linux)
What's happening here is, they rip off people using their "stolen" (GPL-violating) product
No, Mr. "Journalist", You Might be Corrupt (But Denying It to Yourself and to Others to Pacify Your Consciousness)
"Journalists" like the label because it makes the job sound like an honourable profession and they're presumed objective
Stop Glorifying Murderers, They Aren't Helping Anybody
Murder isn't the solution. Murder is a problem.
Europe's "Manhattan Project" Should be Abandoning Microsoft, Moving Everything to Free (Libre) Software
At the moment, Microsoft draws much of its budget from taxpayers
Gemini Links 14/12/2024: Minor Thing About git and jujutsu
Links for the day
Links 14/12/2024: Adobe's Shares Collapse, Apple Publishes Fake News With LLMs
Links for the day
Links 14/12/2024: ChatGPT Down, Microsofter Bracing for Layoffs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/12/2024: Firing at Work, jujutsu, and Gemini Mode
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 13, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, December 13, 2024