IBM Executive Denies Open-source Sellout

IBM will not use its open-source patents in any potential legal actions it may bring against TurboHercules, an IBM company executive seemingly asserted on Wednesday.

"IBM stands by this 2005 Non-Assertion Pledge today as strongly as it did then. IBM will not sue for the infringement of any of those 500 patents by any Open Source Software," wrote Dan Frye, an IBM vice president of open systems development, in a letter sent to Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin.

Frye was responding to a question from Zemlin concerning a heated discussion in the open-source community about IBM's potential use of open-source patents in an ongoing dispute the company is having with Paris software company TurboHercules.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100408/tc_pcworld/ibmexecutivedeniesopensourcesellout;_ylt=AqlX1wFMGyIjdyyYTsD_4y0jtBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTNkNDkyaG42BGFzc2V0A3Bjd29ybGQvMjAxMDA0MDgvaWJtZXhlY3V0aXZlZGVuaWVzb3BlbnNvdXJjZXNlbGxvdXQEcG9zAzkEc2VjA3luX2FydGljbGVfc3VtbWFyeV9saXN0BHNsawNpYm1leGVjdXRpdmU-