On Sat, 25 May 2002, Joerg Schilling wrote:
From: Loic Dachary loic@gnu.org
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p...
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p...
The embodiments of the present invention described are implemented in a computing platform based on the computer operating system commonly known as 'Linux' that is available as open source directly over the Internet. Linux is also available through various vendors who provide service and support for the Linux operating system. Among these vendors are Red Hat, Inc., of Research Triangle Park, N.C., the assignee of the present invention.
I cannot see that the "inventor" is an RedHat employee, but...
The sourcecode definitely has now been published so it is covered by the GPL. For this reason, the author grants royalty free use by anybody. He cannot earn money from this idea.
BTW: Red Hat in general is not very GPL friendly...
Are you sure of that ? I think RedHat is one of the only GNU/Linux vendor that take into account the GNU General Public License. Every part of code done by RedHat seems to be under the GNU General Publice License. (from the installer to the tmpwatch command ;-)
If you compare with other well-known distributor like SuSe that make some proprietary software (yast[1-2]) including some of their install software without to mention the copyrighted cd layout.
Now, on the other side, the applicant of the patent is not RedHat itself ? Maybe we have to contact Bob Young or maybe other well-known developer at redhat like Dave Miller or Alan Cox ? Maybe to get an official statement about this issue.
Maybe they grant, on the other side, a RF (and not a RAND) license for Free Software developer if they have really put these patents. (maybe we could put them in http://www.ael.be/node.php?id=52)
I fully agree that software patents are dangerous and must be removed in any countries.
I hope we can clarify the situation.
adulau