Re: [RFC 0/1] Contributing a compound object to the libpthread

[DJ Delorie <dj at redhat dot com>]

The usual IANAL disclaimer applies :-)

Oleh Derevenko <oleh.derevenko@gmail.com> writes:
> All the patent texts (except for those that contain sectecy matter)
> are publicly available from the USPTO or similar corresponding
> national/international patent management offices.

As Adhemerval noted, it's not the idea we're running into issues with,
it's the legal framework under which we are allowed to learn about the
idea.  Welcome to the US legal system, it's a mess, but it's what we've
got to work with.

For starters, I'll point out that you, as a patent owner, are legally
allowed to sue anyone who re-creates your invention without your
permission.  I know this isn't your intent, but bear with me a moment,
as I'm describing a worst-case scenario.  So, you're allowed to sue.
Maybe they're using your invention to torture babies.  Maybe they're a
competitor.  Maybe you don't like the color of their logo.  It doesn't
matter, you're *allowed* to sue.

Worse, the US legal system will grant you triple damages if you can show
that the re-creation was done *knowing* you have a patent on it.
Because of this, it's in our best *legal* interests to not even look at
patents because of the added risk.

But, you say, you *want* people to use your inventions.  That's
wonderful, and we appreciate that, but unfortunately you have to say
that *legally* before we can act on it, and that means paperwork.

Likewise for copyright stuff.  We're happy you want to contribute, but
if you want to give us code to use, you have to give it to us legally so
we can protect ourselves against future legal problems.  We also use
this legal "muscle" to protect our code (and code you've contributed)
from being mis-used by "bad actors".  There have been instances in the
past where huge chunks of code had to be pulled out of non-GNU packages
because of copyright issues.  The FSF avoids this by legally owning the
code via copyright assignments.

So we ask for patent licenses and copyright assignments.  Because of our
legal system, this has to be a hard requirement, and there's little we
can do about it.