From patchwork Fri Jan 20 21:21:58 2012 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [4/6] README: Add patent disclaimer language to README Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:21:58 -0000 From: Chuck Lever X-Patchwork-Id: 137115 Message-Id: <20120120212158.13737.79732.stgit@degas.1015granger.net> To: fedfs-utils-devel@oss.oracle.com Last year, Microsoft made a formal IPR for technology described in the FedFS NSDB draft. At IETF 81, NetApp formally announced the existence of a patent which covers FedFS-related technology. Split out a new section for IP disclaimers in our README file, and document these patents. Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever --- README | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++++++----- 1 files changed, 25 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/README b/README index 6afab7a..0fed1ae 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -36,6 +36,31 @@ compatible with the next release of this package, nor with implementations from other vendors. +Intellectual Property Disclaimer +------------ -------- ---------- + +The implementation in this package is copyright 2010 and 2011, Oracle. +The code in this package is covered by version 2 of the GNU General +Public License. See the COPYING file for details. A few parts are +also covered by the IETF's code license, which is a simplified BSD +license that is compatible with GPLv2. + +See also IPR disclosure 1362 (http://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/1362) +which discloses coverage of the FedFS NSDB architecture by US Patent +#5,842,214: "Distributed file system providing a unified name space +with efficient name resolution," filed by Microsoft Corporation on +September 24, 1997 but never assigned. + +See also IPR disclosure 1634 (http://datatracker.ietf.org/ipr/1634) +which discloses coverage of technology in this package by US Patent +#7,933,921: "Referent-controlled location resolution of resources in a +federated distributed system," filed on November 29, 2006 and assigned +to NetApp on April 26, 2011. NetApp has publicly stated its intent to +release the patent via a Royalty-Free, Reasonable and +Non-discriminatory Licence to All Implementers, via the usual IETF +process. + + Package Synopsis ------- -------- @@ -44,11 +69,6 @@ This package contains an implementation of the Federated Filesystem see RFC 5716, or read the fedfs(7) man page provided in the doc/man directory. -This package is copyright 2010 and 2011, Oracle. It's use is covered -by version 2 of the GNU General Public License. See the COPYING file -for details. A few parts are also covered by the IETF's code license, -which is a simplified BSD license that is compatible with GPLv2. - Packagers and distributors should review this entire README document to understand what is in this package, it's pre-requisites, and any security issues related to it.