Nice new dissertation on patent policy for FOSS distributions

[dibl]

Debian commissioned the Software Freedom Law Center to write an analysis, in the form of a "FAQ", on the current software patent situation:

http://www.debian.org/reports/patent-faq

It's far more useful than the amateur speculation that is frequently tossed about in casual conversation. If you're pressed for time, just read the section on "Patent Risk to a Community Distribution" -- lots of interesting observations as well as informed speculation by folks who are actually qualified to speculate.

[Zhao]

Re: Nice new dissertation on patent policy for FOSS distributions

Nice read, thanks for sharing

[GreyGeek]

Re: Nice new dissertation on patent policy for FOSS distributions

Very interesting read. It appears that the safest distro is one that is distributed as source and compiled by the user. LFS and Gentoo come to mind. But, I don't read software patents. I may read comments about software patents, but Microsoft makes all sorts of claims but none of their "235 patents that Linux infringes" have been shown in court to be in Linux. So, I'm not jumping ship.