OSI fears for Linux if Novell patents land with Apple, Oracle
Found on The Register on Saturday, 09 April 2011
In buying up a stash of Novell patents, Apple and Oracle could choke rivals in the virtualization, middleware, mobile, and media markets, according to the Open Source Initiative.
The OSI is "very concerned" that Apple could make it "difficult or impossible to create competitive mobile platforms or mobile applications developed as open source."
Steve Jobs has threatened to "go after" Ogg Theora and other open source video codecs. "It seems plausible that Apple's most credible competitor in the mobile market, Android, would be vulnerable to challenge by the patents involved in the CPTN-transaction," Tiemann said.
That's why software patents should be a thing of the past. Nobody should be able to stop someone from developing a product alternative, which might even be better.