Alan still has a wicked sense of humor.

Posted on by Luis Villa

A list of patents filed by Alan Cox. (Note that many of these are just applications and not yet granted.) I’m particularly amused by the application for a patent on DRM. (Note that I can laugh because of Red Hat’s patent pledge.) Now I just need to find a site which will give me an RSS feed of patent applications filtered by assignee…

[Update later: it is clear from my comments that this post wasn’t clear. Let me restate: I think this is a good, or at least not bad thing- RH’s patent pledge makes it very clear that this will not be used against Free Software; and unlike many other mundane RH patents, this one could (hypothetically) be used against Real Bad Guys. I don’t think that it was bad for Alan, or RH, to apply for this patent in a defensive manner.]

Published by Luis Villa

12 thoughts on “Alan still has a wicked sense of humor.”

  1. Alan Cox, en av Linuxkarnans underhallare, har ansokt om patent pa DRM. Cox jobbar vanligtvis pa Red Hat och kan skapa problem for Film/musikbranchen. » originalnyhet

  2. 2007 im Studio B statt. Wenn ich recht im Bilde bin, haben sich bisher 3 Teams um die Organisation beworben – darunter auch ein Team von 06ern. Hätte ich einen Award für Realsatire zu vergeben, würde er definitiv an Mr. Alan Cox gehen. Sich DRM patentieren

  4. Red Hat specifically promises to oppose software patents, but so long as they are in effect they will take patents on their technology to defend Free Software within the existing framework and the licensing for these patents will comply with the terms of the GPL. They specifically promised this, legally binding and all. I really don’t see what the problem is – futhermore I think you should take Red Hats track record into account, have they ever attack an open source developer or project using their patents? No, so why would they start now? Red Hat are pillars of the community and one of strongest supporters we have had historically.

  7. No, I said ‘note’. If RH had not made a patent pledge, I would not say that Alan has a ‘wicked sense of humor’, nor would I be ‘laughing’.

  8. Alan Cox is one of those people I have just met for a few hours, but do have a trust in.

    It is a sign that Red Hat is doing good as long as Alan Cox keep quiet and stay. I belive he is that kind of guy that will stand up for his thoughts and that will not go unoticed by the world.

    Alan might not get fully informed about everything inside Red Hat, but I look at him as a defender of free software inside Red Hat.

  9. here’s the post on total fark…

    begin quote…

    (tieguy.org) Hero Redhat has filed for patents on DRM. If granted, will become eligible for RIAAch arounds.

    end Quote..

  11. […] here. Also for the people interested in the ongoing ‘battle’ against DRM, look at the following posting on Luis Villa’s blog. Alan Cox is a kernel maintainer who works for RedHat. This news was later […]

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