IBM's Supreme Court Brief Says That Patents Drive Free Software

H4x0r Jim Duggan writes "For the Supreme Court's upcoming review of the Bilski decision, IBM has submitted an amicus brief claiming that software patents 'fueled the explosive growth of open source software development' (!) (p38 of linked PDF). EndSoftwarePatents, for its own amicus brief, is looking for help building a list of free software harmed by software patents, and a list of companies that distribute free software and are taxed by patent royalties."

Re:WTF IBM

[Chris Mattern]

While I agree with your post, a patent is certainly *not* like a hurricane.
Hurricanes destroy value. Patents reallocate value to the inventor.

Patents destroy value because the tarriff exacted by the inventor makes uneconomic uses that would otherwise be practical. Part of the value that is not destroyed is then reallocated to the inventor.

If the value created by encouraging the inventor to make the invention in the first place outweighs the destroyed value, then the patent is still a good thing. But once the invention is in existence, patents unquestionable destroy value.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:WTF IBM

[Antiocheian]

IBM is correct, patent holders find it easier to "open the source" while preventing others from employing the idea. This is exactly what RMS wrote: Open Source and Free Software is not the same.

Read here http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html [gnu.org]

Open Source projects IBM created/contributed:

[Anonymous Coward]

(source) [ibm.com]

Abstract Machine Test Utility for Linux Common Criteria Certificate
Abstract Machine Test Utility (AMTU) is an administrative utility to check whether the underlying protection mechanism of the hardware are still being enforced.

AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications
AIX Toolbox for Linux Applications contains a collection of open source and GNU software built for AIX 5L for IBM pSeries systems and IBM RS/6000.

Ami - Korean Input Method
Korean IMS (Input Method System) Ami.

Anaconda
Anaconda is the installation program for Red Hat distributions.

Apache
Home of the Apache Web server and several dozen related projects.

Apache Ant
Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool.

Apache APR
Apache Portable Runtime

Apache Cocoon
A Web development framework built around the concepts of separation of concerns and component-based Web development.

Apache DB project
Open source database solutions

Apache Directory
The Apache Directory project aims to produce a high-performance and production-quality LDAP server written in Java.

Apache Excalibur
Excalibur's primary product is a lightweight, embeddable Inversion of control container named Fortress that is written in Java code.

Apache Forrest
Apache Forrest is an XML standards-oriented documentation framework based upon Apache Cocoon, providing XSLT stylesheets and schemas, images, and other resources.

Apache Geronimo
Apache Geronimo is the J2EE server project of the Apache Software Foundation. The aim of the project is to produce a large and healthy community of J2EE developers tasked with the development of an open-source, certified J2EE server that: is licensed under the Apache License, passes Sun's TCK for J2EE 1.4, and reuses the best ASF/BSD licensed code available today, with new ASF code to complete the J2EE stack.

Apache Gump
Apache's continuous integration tool

Apache HTTP Server
The Apache project develops and maintains an open-source HTTP server for various modern desktop and server operating systems.

Apache Jakarta
A diverse set of open source Java solutions

Apache James
The Apache Java Enterprise Mail Server (Apache James) is a 100% pure Java SMTP and POP3 Mail server and NNTP News server. James was designed to be a complete and portable enterprise mail engine solution based on currently available open protocols.

Apache Lenya
Apache Lenya is an Open Source Java/XML Content Management System and comes with revision control, site management, scheduling, search, WYSIWYG editors, and workflow.

Apache Logging Services
Cross-language logging services for purposes of application debugging and auditing.

Apache Maven
Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information.

Apache mod_Perl
mod_perl brings together the full power of the Perl programming language and the Apache HTTP server

Apache Portals
Apache Portals is a collaborative software development project dedicated to providing robust, full-featured, commercial-quality, and freely available portal-related software on a variety of platforms and programming languages.

Apache SpamAssassin
SpamAssassin uses a wide variety of local and network tests to identify spam signatures.

Apache Struts
The goal of the Apache Struts project is to encourage application architectures based on the "Model 2" approach, a variation of the classic Model-View-Controller (MVC) design paradigm. Under Model 2, a servlet (or equivalent) manages business logic execution, and presentation logic resides mainly in server pages.

Re:Put's the lie to their open source claims

[voidphoenix]

Read "The Road Less Traveled" and "People of the Lie" by M. Scott Peck, M.D. for a professional psychologist's definition of "evil", in a serious sense. He also discusses how organizations can be "evil".