Re: The GPL and Patents: ROFL

[RJack]

On 8/13/2010 12:20 PM, Hyman Rosen wrote:
> On 8/13/2010 6:03 AM, RJack wrote:
> > How 'bout some GPL'd Java code for *your* operating system?
> >
> > "Oracle Corp. filed a lawsuit against Google Inc. on Thursday,
> > alleging that the Internet search giant has infringed on
> > intellectual property related to the Java software that Oracle
> > acquired when it purchased Sun Microsystems Inc."
> >
> > http://www.marketwatch.com/story/oracle-sues-google-for-patent-infringement-2010-08-12?reflink=MW_news_stmp
> >
> >
> >
> > Didn't Sun Microsystems release Java under the GPL?
> > http://www.fsf.org/news/fsf-welcomes-gpl-java.html
> >
> > Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah! The GPL will relieve the world of evil software
> >  patents.
>
> Of course, it was anti-GPL cranks who mocked Richard Stallman when
> he wrote about "The Java Trap",
> <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/java-trap.html>. As usual, he was
> prescient. That page now has a note pointing out that Sun released
> some but not all of its Java sources under the GPL, so care is still
> required when using Java in free software.
>
> If the patents involved were part of the GPL release, Google will
> raise that as a defense, accusing Oracle of promissory estoppel.

The GPLv2&3 licenses are no defense whatsoever to patent enforcement.
Moglen's patent gibberish is just that -- gibberish.

Any code that implements a patent idea is not copyrightable within the
practice area of the patent.

"Unlike a patent, a copyright gives no exclusive right to the art
disclosed; protection is given only to the expression of the idea - not
the idea itself; MAZER v. STEIN, 347 U.S. 201 (1954).

When a work itself constitutes merely an idea, process or method of
operation, or when any discernible expression is inseparable from the
idea itself, or when external factors dictate the form of expression,
copyright protection does not extend to the work. Lexmark International,
Inc. v. Static Control Components, Inc., 387 F.3d 522 (6th Cir. 2004).

The GPL is a *copyright* license it cannot apply to source code that is
not eligible for copyright in the context of patents.

LMAO.

Sincerely,
RJack :)