Update on the Sun/NetApp ZFS patent litigation
,----[ Quote ]
| I received this update from Sun Microsystems on Tuesday on the ongoing ZFS
| patent litigation with NetApp. While colored by its source, the news seems
| positive for Sun (and, given the importance of ZFS, for the open-source
| development community). Sun has succeeded in getting the venue changed to
| California and it appears that its public request for examples of prior art
| have yielded fruit.
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http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9835693-16.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=TheOpenRoad
Related:
Sun plans to countersue NetApp
,----[ Quote ]
| Consequently, "Later this week, we're going to use our defensive portfolio to
| respond to Network Appliance, filing a comprehensive reciprocal suit. As a
| part of this suit, we are requesting a permanent injunction to remove all of
| their filer products from the marketplace, and are examining the original NFS
| license--on which Network Appliance was started," Schwartz said.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9803882-39.html
ZFS Puts Net App Viability at Risk?
http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/harvesting_from_a_troll
NetApp/Sun lawsuit seen as open-source test case
,----[ Quote ]
| NetApp contends that Sun's ZFS file system technology, which was donated to
| the OpenSolaris.org open-source community earlier this year, infringes on
| seven NetApp patents.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9034562
Sun calls NetApp's blog bluff...with open source...in a blog
,----[ Quote ]
| I know nothing about the validity of either side's patent claims. Only a
| judge (or, more likely, a settlement) will elucidate either claim. But I have
| watched Microsoft respond to open source with patent FUD, and I'm willing to
| believe that others will fight back in this same way. I don't know that
| NetApp is--Hitz argues pretty persuasively that there were other reasons
| involved--but I do believe that any company that relies on an old way of
| selling its software needs to respond to the open-source threat.
|
| Patent suits are one way to do that. An ugly, and ultimately futile way, but
| a way nonetheless.
`----
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9772580-7.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=NewsBlog
NetApp + Sun = legal havoc
,----[ Quote ]
| Now, this is enough to me. I don't fucking care who is infringing whose
| patents. It's more and more clear that patents (all kind of patents!) don't
| do anything to the benefit of the public. They're not good for the humanity
| at large, but only to lawyers.
|
| And when you see how two major IT actors are trying to make money from
| lawsuits instead of making profit from the technologies they're supposed to
| develop, you have all the rights in the world to think that the current
| Establishment is broken.
|
| Because it is broken. You can see it every day with U.S.-based companies.
`----
http://beranger.org/index.php?page=diary&2007/09/06/08/55/23-netapp-sun-legal-havoc
A few thoughts on Sun and NetApp
,----[ Quote ]
| According to Raven Zachary at the451 Group, “Hitz told me that this case is
| about NetApp and Sun, not the open source community that has emerged around
| ZFS, and NetApp does not intend to go after the ZFS community.”
|
| Until it does so (if it ever does so), to paint its legal claims as an attack
| on open source seems to be to be unfair.
`----
http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2007/09/a_few_thoughts.html
ZFS on Linux: It's alive
,----[ Quote ]
| The project is working, with several users running and even booting from a
| ZFS volume. Correia has not undertaken any performance tuning yet, and
| one sysadmin, Chris Samuel, has posted benchmarks that clock only about
| half the speed of another Linux filesystem, XFS.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/061807-zfs-on-linux.html#6285522977769458795
Linux: ZFS, Licenses and Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| A recent discussion on the lkml examined the possibility of a
| Linux implementation of Sun's ZFS. It was pointed out that the
| file system is released under the GPL-incompatible CDDL, and
| that Sun has filed numerous patents to prevent ZFS from being
| reverse engineered.
`----
http://kerneltrap.org/node/8066
Sun's Schwartz: High-Performance Computing Will Be Pervasive
,----[ Quote ]
| Schwartz said that Sun will continue to ramp up development efforts in its
| storage sector, centering on the Thumper X4500 server—a 48-drive unit with a
| capacity of 24TB per box.
|
| "Thumper utilizes the ZFS," Schwartz said, "and we'll be taking the message
| out to the open-source community more and more as time goes on. In fact,
| we've seen the open-source community grow and accelerate its activity. That's
| where the future of development lies."
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2179550,00.asp
Sun's Chief Open Source Officer Talks Patents
,----[ Quote ]
| The open-source community is very vocal about software patents.
| Sun owns lots of them. Isn't that a contradiction for Sun to
| claim to be an open-source community member yet own software patents?
|
| Not at all. Most companies engaging in free and open-source
| software hold software patents?even Red Hat. If you neglect
| patent filing, you risk various perils including others filing
| for patents on the same ideas and being unable to trade
| portfolios when an aggressor comes calling. What matters is
| not whether you hold them but what you do with them.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2135483,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
Jonathan Schwartz on the future of Sun
,----[ Quote ]
| After just over a year as chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz is
| moving into a new phase as the leader of Sun Microsystems.
`----
http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Jonathan-Schwartz-on-the-future-of-Sun/0,139023769,339277736,00.htm
http://tinyurl.com/34qfuk
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