THE Open Invention Network (OIN) has been covered here since its inception, back when an IBM person (founding member) ran the whole thing and seemed mostly reasonable, even better than benign, at least at the time (much like the Linux Foundation, which is partly connected not just in the sense that sponsors and agenda overlap). Big banks aren't our friends; they might be OIN's friends. OIN isn't our friend and these people often undo the goals of FFII and other groups that oppose software patents.

"OIN isn't what it seems or what it claims to be. It exists to serve and protect monopolists."Nowadays many of us in the Free software world have already grown cynical and critical of the IBM-centric OIN. Adding Microsoft as a member did not lend legitimacy but mostly harmed it, especially in light of the fact that Microsoft continued to attack Linux -- sometimes with patents -- after it had joined OIN. The video above is a response to this morning's press release. As we put it earlier on in Daily Links, OIN is not a community (the word "community" is used in the headline) but a front group of software patents proponents looking to openwash their monopolies and striving to make software patents look benign w.r.t. Linux. They say they were "formed to safeguard open source software (OSS)" (no "F" word, nothing about Freedom) and then they call themselves a "community" again. Nowadays companies like to portray themselves as "green", "open" and even "communities"...

Yes, nothing says "community" like ruthless for-profit corporations that help bomb people...

Keith Bergelt is then quoted naming a bunch of buzzwords and name-dropping hype like "fintech" (one of the many weasel words that software patents' proponents use). A few hours ago the 'news' site ZDNet did a puff piece about the whole thing, as usual. The video above only scratches the surface of what we know and what we've shown about OIN over the years. This is just more of the same.

Not too long ago the Linux Foundation was greenwashing big banks, so why can't OIN? The puff piece keeps mentioning "trolls" and "patent trolls", but nowhere is it mentioned that OIN never stops trolls and moreover it hired trolls to lead the OIN. What a lousy piece of cheap propaganda.

OIN isn't what it seems or what it claims to be. It exists to serve and protect monopolists. ⬆