Red Hat's new patent troll weapon: GPL violation

Red Hat has taken a unique step in defending itself from a patent infringement claim from Twin Peaks Software: a counterclaim that Twin Peaks is in copyright violation on mount, the file management app that is licensed under the GPLv2.

Curiously, the storage technology that Twin Peaks is claiming as infringed was originally developed by Gluster… but it wasn't until Red Hat acquired Gluster in October 2011 that Twin Peaks got around to suing Gluster and its new owner.

Red Hat's legal-fu is massive, because it's using the fact that there is still a lot of non-compliance of the GPL out there to its clear advantage. And, as Groklaw reported this morning, the risk to Twin Peaks is far greater now.