March 8, 2008 6:04 AM PST
Sun seeks patent protection for OpenOffice with LGPLv3
Sun is shifting the license that governs OpenOffice from the Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2 to LGPLv3 in an effort to give the open-source office suite greater patent protection. I'm not sure it's going to work:
By moving from version 2 of the LGPL to version 3, Sun is bringing new language prohibiting the use of software patents to OpenOffice.org. "The most important protection for developers comes from creating mutual patent grants. ... LGPLv3 does this," [Sun's Simon] Crosby noted. In effect, a code issuer using either the plain GPL or LGPL is telling developers who adopt the code that he will not invoke any patents he may hold over that code.
Until Microsoft and the ever-waiting horde of patent trolls start contributing to OpenOffice, it's unclear how users of OpenOffice will gain any new patent protection from the license change. No one was worried about Novell, Sun, etc. waging a patent war against users of OpenOffice. The threat is elsewhere.
As such, this is well-intentioned but probably not all that useful.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
the protection against patent is actually very real. It comes from MS via Novell. Remember that Novell and MS are working on "interoperability" following their agreement and that part of this work entails working on an ODF-OOXML converter together. In essence, MS IP can be found and claimed by MS if this converter or parts of it was to find its way inside OOo; it's already the case with OOo Novell Edition, and could also be true with OOo "vanilla".
http://blog.milkingthegnu.org/2008/03/microsoft-lost.html
- by jvdelong March 18, 2008 8:52 AM PDT
- Four years ago, when Sun & MSFT entered into a contract about patents and open office, the headline was "Sun Sells Out Open Office to Microsoft.." http://www.linuxelectrons.com/news/general/sun-sells-out-open-office-microsoft
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(3 Comments)The charge was that Sun was protecting itself against any patent actions, but that downstream users were given zilch.
The same seems true of this latest Sun decision to put Open Office under theLGPLv3. If Open Office raises any issues concerning MSFT patents, then this action does no good for downstream users; Sun's use of the LGPLv3 does not bind MSFT not to assert its patents. What the action seems designed to do is prevent the downstream users from entering into any agreements with MSFT, similar to the MSFT/NOVL deal; the provisions of GPLv3 concerning patents were added at the end in effort to forestall additional deals of the MSFT/NOVL type. (That arrangement was itself grandfathered in.) So Sun itself remains protected, while downstream users are not.
As for the comment about the converter -- I don't know the details, but as a general proposition, Sun cannot take code contributed to OO under LGPLv2 and convert it to v3, wiping out one of the premises of the initial contribution. There must be consent.
So on balance, this is a blow to interoperability. If there IS a patent problem Sun's action not only does not help, it imposes a bar to a solution. And Sun itself is not running any of the risks.