"Collaboration is part of open source. Keith bergelt, CEO of oin, explained that the open innovation network model allows many enterprises and companies to decide where they should compete and cooperate. With the evolution of open source, "we need to create channels for cooperation, otherwise we will have hundreds of groups spending billions of dollars on the same technology."
The open innovation network, or oin, is carrying out activities around the world to keep Linux away from the harm of patent litigation. Its efforts have been warmly responded by more than 1000 companies. Their participation has made this force the largest anti patent management organization in history.
The open innovation network was founded in 2005 as a white hat organization to protect Linux from licensing problems. The board of directors including Google, IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, red hat and Sony gave it considerable financial support. Many organizations around the world have joined this community by signing free oin agreements.
Members of the organization that founded the open innovation network regarded it as a bold attempt to use intellectual property rights to protect Linux. Its business model is very difficult to understand. It requires its members to adopt copyright free licenses and never give up the opportunity to sue other members for Linux related intellectual property rights.
However, since the acquisition of Linux - think about servers and cloud platforms - the strategy to protect Linux intellectual property has become more and more urgent.
In the past few years, the territory of Linux has experienced a change. Oin doesn't have to explain the definition of this organization to people, or why Linux needs protection. According to Keith bergelt, CEO of oin, the importance of Linux has attracted worldwide attention.
"We have seen a cultural change in which people understand how oin benefits cooperation," he told Linux insider.
How does it work
The open innovation network creates a collaborative environment by using patents. This approach helps to ensure the continuity of innovation. This has benefited many software manufacturers, customers, new markets and investors.
The patent license of the open innovation network can be used without copyright by any company, public institution or individual. These rights are granted on the basis that the signatory agrees not to attack the Linux system solely for patent protection.
Oin ensures that the source code of Linux remains open. This allows programmers, device manufacturers, independent software developers and public institutions not to worry too much about intellectual property rights when investing in and using Linux. This saves a lot of money for companies that repackage, embed, and use Linux.
"With the more and more extensive use of copyright licenses, the demand for oin licenses has become more urgent. Now, people are looking for simpler or more practical solutions, "bergelt said.
Oin Legal Defense Assistance is free to members. Members must promise not to initiate patent litigation for the software on the oin list. In order to protect their software, they also agreed to provide their own patents. Ultimately, these guarantees will allow hundreds of thousands of cross licenses to be connected to each other through the network, bergelt explained.
Filling legal loopholes
"What oin is doing is very necessary. It provides another layer of IP protection, "said Greg R. Vetter, an associate professor at Houston Law Center University.
He replied to Linux insider that the second version of the GPL license was considered by some to provide an implicit patent license, but lawyers prefer an explicit license.
The license provided by oin fills this gap. It also explicitly covers the Linux kernel. According to Vetter, explicit patent licensing is not a necessary part of gplv2, but this part is added to GPLv3（ The Linux kernel is licensed by gplv2
Take a coder who wrote 10000 lines of code in GPLv3. Over time, other coders will contribute more lines of code and join the intellectual property rights. The software patent license terms in GPLv3 will protect the use of all code based on the patents of all participating contributors, Vetter said.
Not exactly
Patents and licenses overlap each other in the upper layer of the legal structure. Understanding the impact of both on open source software is like crossing a minefield.
"Usually, a license is a legal structure that grants additional rights based on patent and copyright law," Vetter said. A license is considered to give people a license to do something that may infringe the intellectual property rights of others. "
Vetter points out that many free and open source licenses (such as Mozilla public license, GNU GPLv3 and Apache Software license) integrate some forms of reciprocal patent rights. Vetter points out that old licenses like BSD and MIT do not mention patents.
A software license allows others to use the code created by the programmer to some extent. The establishment of copyright is automatic, as long as someone writes or draws something original. However, copyright only covers individual expressions and derivative works. He doesn't have the idea of covering the functionality or usability of the code.
The patent covers functionality. Patents can also be licensed. Copyright may not protect how someone independently develops an implementation of another person's code, but patents fill this small flaw, Vetter explains.
Find safe passage
The mixed legal nature of licenses and patents may pose a threat to open source developers. According to William Hurley, one of the founders of chaotic moon studios and a member of the IEEE Computer Association, for some people, even GPL can be a threat.
"A long time ago, open source was a completely different world. Driven by mutual respect and the view that code is an art rather than an asset, programs and code were more open than they are now. I believe that many efforts for the best vision almost always end up with unexpected results, "Hurley told Linux insider.
He hinted that organizations with more than 1000 members might disagree on the importance of intellectual property protection. This may continue to muddle the open source ecosystem.
"In the end, these show some common misconceptions around intellectual property rights. Having thousands of developers does not reduce risk - it increases risk. The more developers give patent licenses, the more valuable they look, "Hurley said“ The more valuable they look, the more likely people with similar patents or other intellectual property rights are to try to exploit and extract their own economic benefits. "
Sharing and competition coexist
Competition and cooperation strategy is part of open source. The oin model allows companies to decide where they will compete and where they will cooperate, bergelt explained.
"Many changes in the evolution of open source have moved us in another direction. We must create channels for cooperation. Otherwise, we will have hundreds of groups spending billions of dollars on the same technology, "he said.
The innovation of the mobile phone industry is a good example. Companies have set different standards. No sharing, no cooperation, bergelt explained.
"This has left us seven to ten years behind in our ability to access technology in the United States," he said. Our experience with equipment lags far behind that of people in other parts of the world. When we can't use CDMA (code division multiple access communication technology), we are still complacent about GSM (Global System for mobile communications). "
Change pattern
Oin experienced a surge of 400 new licenses last year. This means that there is a new trend in open source.
Bergelt said: "the market has reached a critical point, and people in the organization have finally realized the need for frank cooperation and competition. The result is that two things happen at the same time. This can become complex and laborious. "
However, this transformation process driven by cultural innovation in which people begin to consider cooperation and competition is acceptable. He explained that this is also how people embrace the transformation of open source - especially in Linux, the leader project of the open source community.
Another sign is that the most significant new projects have not been developed under the GPLv3 license.
Two is better than one
"The GPL is extremely important, but the fact is that a bunch of licensing models are being used. The relative solvability of patent issues in eclipse, Apache, and Berkeley licenses is often much lower than in GPLv3. " Bergelt said.
GPLv3 is a natural complement to solving patent problems - but GPL itself is not enough to solve potential conflicts around patent use alone. So oin was designed to supplement the copyright license, he added.
However, layers of patents and licenses may not bring much benefit. In the end, patents are used for offensive purposes - not defensive purposes - in almost all cases, bergelt suggests.
"If you are not prepared to take legal action against others, patents may not be the best way to protect your intellectual property," he said“ We now live in a world of misunderstandings about software - open and proprietary. These software are also bundled with wrong and outdated patent systems. We struggle every day with industrialization and stifled innovation, "he said.
The court is the last resort
It's gratifying to think that the emergence of oin has curbed the proliferation of litigation, bergelt said, or at least it can be said that the emergence of oin has curbed certain threats.
"It can be said that we let people lay down their weapons. At the same time, we are creating a new cultural norm. Once you take a stake in the non aggressive patent in this model, the related impact is to encourage cooperation, "he said.
If you are willing to commit to cooperation, your first reaction will tend not to rush to sue. Instead, you want us to allow you to use what we have and make money for you, while we can also use what you have, bergelt explains.
"Oin is a multifaceted solution. It encourages signatories to create win-win agreements, "he said." this makes prosecution the most compelling act. That's where it is. "
baseline
Bergelt firmly believes that oin operates to prevent Linux from patent damage. There is no litigation in this world that needs Linux.
The only thing that comes close are the mobile wars with Microsoft, which focus on elements high in the stack. Those legal challenges may be to increase the cost of ownership, including using Linux products, bergelt said.
Nevertheless, "these are not Linux lawsuits," he said“ Their focus is not on the core of Linux. They focus on what's in the Linux system. "
Related reading:
Steam is trying to get more games for Linux
IBM releases Linux mainframe Linux one
What can a card computer do? Look at creative devices
Creative DIY inventory of raspberry pie is bigger than whose brain hole
Pickpocketing the history of open source Prosperity: who is Linux speaking for“
Our other product:
