Business needs will rewrite GPL - keynote speech at LinuxWorld

[Bill Sconce]

More went on at LinuxWorld than we knew.  There was a lot of good
traffic in the ".org pavilion", and at our GNHLUG booth.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the divider there were lots of
slick booths, some good announcements,...  and keynote speeches.

One of our students in the LAMP class asked me if I'd heard about
the keynote speech given by an attorney named Steven Henry. [1]

Nope.  Perhaps we should have gotten out of the ".org pavilion" more.  
Who knew such propaganda would be handed out at a Linux tradeshow?
Oh, wait.  "Tradeshow".

You'll want to look at the references for yourself.  But here's some of
what PJ had to say [2] about Mr. Henry's speech over at Groklaw:

    First, let me say, piffle to this hogwash. [...]  Could he be more 
    wrong?  Let me count the ways.
    
    First, to phrase things more delicately, here are some of the errors
    in fact in his remarks: 
        * Linux was ever antibusiness -- False.
        * It was ever a creed or a religion -- False.
        * Linux needs business -- False. 
          It's the other way around.
        * Linux needs to "share the platform" with money interests -- False.
          It's the other way around.
        * The GPL will never succeed unless it changes -- False. 
          It has already succeeded. GNU/Linux is proof.
        * Businesses will not embrace the GPL unless it changes -- False.
        * IBM and HP are seeking to "marry open and proprietary" - False.
        * Economics will control the future of Linux -- False, I hope.

Read 'em and weep.  [3] [4]

-Bill


[1]  
http://www.linuxworld.com/story/48303.htm

[2]
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050220201903758

[3] "... Mr. Henry's bio:

    'Steve was co-counsel to Signature Financial Group and architect
    of the landmark decision it won from the Federal Circuit in State
    Street Bank and Trust v. Signature Financial Group. That decision
    upheld the eligibility of most software-implemented systems for
    patent protection and opened the door to patents for business
    methods.'"
    
[4] Simon Phipps, Sun Microsystems:
http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/webmink/20050220#father_of_method_patents_slams

    "It's a funny old world. Do you ever wonder who was the 'architect
    of the landmark decision [on] the Federal Circuit ... [that] opened
    the door to patents for business methods'? If you'd been at LinuxWorld
    last week you could have met him - Steven Henry, the man who invented
    method patents and whose influence was the starting point for the whole
    software patent situation in which we find ourselves, gave a keynote.
    In that keynote he tried to fling FUD on the license most likely to
    de-claw his invention."