Another IBM Intellectual Property Rights Assault

Now the target is SUN's Java

[cyril kearney]

I think everyone knows of the suit between IBM and SCO it has to do with alleged Intellectual Property Rights infringement.

Now IBM is pressuring another company seeking that it give up its Intellectual Property Rights.

This time it is SUN and IBM has its eyes on Java. The ploy is to have SUN make Java code Open Source. Rod Smith, IBM's vice-president of Emerging Technologies instigated it in a public letter to Rob Gingell, Sun Microsystems.

However, Bob Sutor, IBM director of WebSphere infrastructure software, denies that IBM is trying to force SUN to open up its code. It seems like Bob and Rod if this is true,

I wonder why IBM is not putting its own products out as Open Source. They could start with Lotus Notes and their DB2 Universal Database.

[Alternative Future]

Hi,

Have you got a link to this story?

Thanks,

-George

[cyril kearney]

Here the url

"Open Letter on Java Stirs Hornet's Nest"
[internetnews.com...]

This contains the actual text of the letter
[cbdiforum.com...]

[choster]

Why the alarm bells? This isn't like the SCO lawsuit at all.
[eweek.com...]

[cyril kearney]

Both are about IBM, Open Source and Intellectual Property Rights.

Both SUN and IBM marketed Unix variants, SUN OS is Solaris and IBM's was AIX. IBM now competes against Solaris with Open Source Linux and is doing well. IBM potentially has a problem with Linux if SCO prevails. It might not be able to compete so well against SUN. SUN might be able to sell more copies of their OS and their hardware.

SUN's other major software product is Java. Most people think the future of SUN is tied to this product. Now IBM is pressuring SUN to give over control of Java by making it Open Source.

Since IBM does not own Java, it is telling the owner of Java what SUN should be doing with it's Intellectual Property. If it did it privately, I would not be complaining.

IBM is ten times as big as SUN and has a history of anti-competive practices and anti-trust violations. I see the public letter as an unfair attack on SUNs Intellectual Property Rights.