ZFS License and Future

[Bill Campbell]

On Sun, Nov 07, 2010, Matthew Seaman wrote:
>On 06/11/2010 16:10, Chad Perrin wrote:
>>   Will Oracle lawyers
>> find some patent related to the creation of that software the company
>> "owns" and use that to sue you if you fork the project to ensure the
>> survival of your own development projects?  It seems somewhat likely,
>> somehow.
>
>Oracle couldn't sue for patent violations on software that they (or
>their predecessors) had released and that people were using as-is.
>That's legitimate use under license from the software's originators.
>
>Nor could they sue successfully over some completely novel
>implementation that avoided patented areas.

ROFL!  Couldn't Sue?  In the U.S.?  SCO has been suing the world
for years for using Linux when SCO distributed it under the GPL
for years, years after their original lawsuits.  All that's
necessary to sue is willing lawyers and lots of cash.  I have
always thought that a major factor in Microsoft's sucess was
initially Bill's Daddy's law firm, and later Microsoft's legal
department ready to sue cometitors into oblivion.

>I doubt that any free software project would have sufficient funds to
>pursue such a case through the courts.

On the other hand, representatives from the Samba team were very
instrumental in EU rulings related to Microsoft.  I don't
remember the details offhand, but I'm sure it's in the groklaw
archives and searchable.

Bill
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