IBM just announced [PDF] that they will allow free use of 500 of their patents in Open Source programming with no strings attached.
This is fantastic news, patents were set to be the next battleground that MS and co may drag Linux and OSS (Open Source Software) into, in order to potentially create more uncertainty about OSS . This move of donating free patent usage for OSS is likely to spread to other companies as they will not wish to be overshadowed by IBM’s support of Linux and OSS in general. IBM is actually in support of the EU software patent initiative, which makes sense because they have more IT patents then pretty much anybody. We can only hope that once they are making most of their money from OSS support contracts, they will see the light and join the fight to stop the big boys using patents to fight off the little boys. In the mean time, their large investment in OSS, and their massive patent portfolio might make people looking for a quick bit of cash think twice about picking OSS as a target. (SCO appears to be learning this lesson the hard way.)
Not everyone is happy about it, many still think that there should be no software patents at all, (myself among them) but I think this is a huge step in the right direction.
Read more on this new development at Groklaw, TheRegister, Wired, BBC, InternetNews, ComputerWorld and Eweek.
