To those relieved that Facebook open source discussions will no longer be dominated by PATENTS file discussion, I just would point out, is was exactly the persistent complaints which motivated Facebook to make this change. So I would say thank you to everyone who complained about the language in the original grant. It shows exactly what is possible when a determined group persists in vocalizing their grievances.
Today it's Facebook PATENTS, tomorrow maybe it's nation-wide automatic license plate tracking. One thing is for sure, staying silent never changed anything.
It's a ridiculous comparison, I know, but never underestimate the ability of a small group of determined rabble-rousers to make a difference. A small incident with some tea in a large body of water comes to mind.
I'm not a lawyer, so I can't comment on the validity of people's concerns about the previous license terms. However, I will point out that just because there was persistent complaining which led to Facebook changing the terms does not imply that the complaining was valid or proportional.
I think the GP was pointing out that it was effective. Sometimes validity (or even reasonableness) has nothing to do with it (cf. influence of special interest groups in politics).
Could you make a compromise and agree that the terms were ambiguous enough to make people feel uncomfortable or uncertain about whether or not it was safe (or felt safe) to architect an application on top of software whose license could be revoked without wrongdoing? That would not require the terms be legally enforceable, thus a debate on validity could be considered moot.
I truly have no idea, but I'll default to charitable interpretations of both sides and assume that people had genuine concerns and that Facebook didn't intend anything nefarious.
In which case the change to the PATENTS file is a net win for everyone: Facebook can now clarify that they had no nefarious intentions, and everyone else has peace of mind.
Good point and I'll concede that the overReaction had a real positive impact (that wouldn't have been possible if it had only been a few pedantic open source law geeks). It's really cool to see developers taking an interest in these issues, and in a bottom-up approach to reforming the patent system. I just hope people agree that explicit, well-designed defensive patent licenses (like Facebook's new language and the Apache 2.0 license) are a step forward.
Actually, a big part of the problem is that Facebook decided to be -- and have remained -- a snowflake in the world of licensing.
I'm sure they have what they think are good reasons not to use the Apache 2 license. But that doesn't change the fact that legal departments all over the world are just walking backwards muttering "nope nope nope".
> Today it's Facebook PATENTS, tomorrow maybe it's nation-wide automatic license plate tracking. One thing is for sure, staying silent never changed anything.
On political issues, the three-letter-agency-mandated bots/shills in the comments of mainstream news outlets and on mainstream social media sites (twitter/reddit) will always be louder and more numerous than us.
It's only on issues that the powerful don't really care about that democratic change is possible.
EDIT: To the downvoters: may I know why you are downvoting me? Maybe you believe I'm a tinfoil hatter? Maybe you think governments, who have been controlling media "narratives" for as long as media has been a thing, don't care about social media even though it is dead easy to manipulate? Maybe you don't know that this has been heavily documented for a while, and is really happening on a large scale, all the time?
Plot twist: Elected officials are realistically unable to exert power or influence over our federal agencies. These quasi-judicial, quasi-executive governmental machines are largely autonomous, developing their own policies to execute their mission. And they process offenders of their own policies, instead of reaching out to other government agencies to enforce law compliance.
If senators or representatives don't vote to fund agencies, it's career suicide. There are so many of these causes that martyrs would be burned up too quickly -- it would be dumb to sacrifice yourself for one of these causes, when there are hundreds up for vote each year. You'd just be replaced by someone with fewer morals.
On one side, it's the same issue as dealing with paid restaurant reviews on review sites; you have to wait for a large enough critical mass of comments/information outlets for true snippets to slip out.
On the other side, it's not like people are being killed. When they come for the Socialists, and these people start disappearing from our society, I will speak out. But this is not happening yet. So many Chickens Little, so few Eggheads Jr.
I'm not the original poster, but I do believe that astroturfing of social media is a reality of our world. The only real source I can provide is http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31070114
And point out the fact that many companies hire social media people. I can also point out old cases like https://i.imgur.com/LY5suhh.jpg
I'm not sure I'm as paranoid as op, but if you think that no agency has at least seriously experimented with this stuff (instigating flame wars etc.) then remember how you felt reading the few people saying "they're recording everything you're doing on the internet".
I really don't like this, because I fear that from now on all these debates will be dominated by various interest groups hoping to get their petty little issues resolved.
This was never an issue that mattered and yet it dominated the debates every single time something on the frontpage had to do with react. For those of us who are actually interested in the technology this sucks.
Today it's Facebook PATENTS, tomorrow maybe it's nation-wide automatic license plate tracking. One thing is for sure, staying silent never changed anything.
It's a ridiculous comparison, I know, but never underestimate the ability of a small group of determined rabble-rousers to make a difference. A small incident with some tea in a large body of water comes to mind.