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Difference between revisions of "Free software projects harmed by software patents"
(→‎Litigation, threats, and uncertainty)
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* [http://jmri.sourceforge.net/ JMRI] sued [http://www.chillingeffects.org/patent/notice.cgi?NoticeID=2432 KAM Industries] for copyright infringement and for a declaratory judgment of the invalidity of patents owned by KAM. After years of litigation, [http://jmri.org/k/docket/203-2.pdf KAM disclaimed one patent to avoid sanctions], but continues to press others.
 
* [http://jmri.sourceforge.net/ JMRI] sued [http://www.chillingeffects.org/patent/notice.cgi?NoticeID=2432 KAM Industries] for copyright infringement and for a declaratory judgment of the invalidity of patents owned by KAM. After years of litigation, [http://jmri.org/k/docket/203-2.pdf KAM disclaimed one patent to avoid sanctions], but continues to press others.
 
* [http://openises.sourceforge.net/emd01a.html Cards911 Project] The Cards 911 Project was an open source emergency medical call-taking system. The project consisted of a document that had a list of questions that would be used by 9-1-1 call takers. The call taker would determine the nature of the illness/injury and then be able to offer additional first aid instructions. The project was simply a document with hyperlinks. It was available in both OpenDocument (odt) and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) formats. The project was forced to shut down due to legal threats (violation of several patents) by Medical Priority Consultants. See also article on [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090308/0932074028.shtml TechDirt]. The offending document is available outside the United States through [https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Open_Source_emergency_dispatch_OpenISES_destroyed_by_patent_threat%2C_2009 WikiLeaks]. An Adobe Acrobat version of the Cease and Desist letter from Stoel Rives Attorneys at Law on behalf of Medical Priority Consultants of Salt Lake City, Utah is available [http://openises.sourceforge.net/doc/PriorityDispatchCnD.pdf here].
 
* [http://openises.sourceforge.net/emd01a.html Cards911 Project] The Cards 911 Project was an open source emergency medical call-taking system. The project consisted of a document that had a list of questions that would be used by 9-1-1 call takers. The call taker would determine the nature of the illness/injury and then be able to offer additional first aid instructions. The project was simply a document with hyperlinks. It was available in both OpenDocument (odt) and Adobe Acrobat (pdf) formats. The project was forced to shut down due to legal threats (violation of several patents) by Medical Priority Consultants. See also article on [http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090308/0932074028.shtml TechDirt]. The offending document is available outside the United States through [https://secure.wikileaks.org/wiki/Open_Source_emergency_dispatch_OpenISES_destroyed_by_patent_threat%2C_2009 WikiLeaks]. An Adobe Acrobat version of the Cease and Desist letter from Stoel Rives Attorneys at Law on behalf of Medical Priority Consultants of Salt Lake City, Utah is available [http://openises.sourceforge.net/doc/PriorityDispatchCnD.pdf here].
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*GCC (and hence projects that are using GCC such as MingW, WINE and ReactOS) are unable to implement or use exception handling that is binary compatible with the Windows exception handling due to a borland patent on SEH. [http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/Wine-development-stifled-by-software-patent/0,339028227,339188400,00.htm Article here] Article is about WINE but this applies to anyone using GCC to work with win32 (or win32-clone) code who needs win32-compatible exception handling.
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*GCC (and hence projects that are using GCC such as MingW, WINE and ReactOS) are unable to implement or use exception handling that is binary compatible with the Windows exception handling due to a borland patent on SEH. [http://www.builderau.com.au/news/soa/Wine-development-stifled-by-software-patent/0,339028227,339188400,00.htm Article here] Article is about WINE but this applies to anyone using GCC to work with win32 (or win32-clone) code who needs win32-compatible exception handling. The patent (http://www.google.com/patents/US5628016) expired on June, 15th 20014, however, so it should not any longer impede incorporation into OSS.
 
* Google Chrome implemented binary diff algorithm optimized for compiled executables called Courgette. It was sued for software patent violation. [http://lwn.net/Articles/359939/]
 
* Google Chrome implemented binary diff algorithm optimized for compiled executables called Courgette. It was sued for software patent violation. [http://lwn.net/Articles/359939/]
 
*[http://www.twolame.org/ Twolame], a MPEG-1 layer 2 audio encoder is not included in [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/WishList#T-W Fedora] because of patent uncertainty.
 
*[http://www.twolame.org/ Twolame], a MPEG-1 layer 2 audio encoder is not included in [https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/WishList#T-W Fedora] because of patent uncertainty.

Revision as of 03:42, 30 August 2014

The following are sources of information about free software projects harmed by software patents. Most of this harm comes as passive threats.

IBM has claimed that software patents help free software. (See Fake representatives of free software#IBM) This page collects that evidence that this is obviously untrue and isn't a position shared by free software developers or users.

Products that have had to remove features

Litigation, threats, and uncertainty

Statements from project representatives

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

References

  1. ↑ http://www.mail-archive.com/sipx-dev@list.sipfoundry.org/msg07791.html
  2. ↑ http://www.freeswitch.org/node/155
  3. ↑ http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2008/012908-barracuda.html
  4. ↑ http://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/legal/
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