The Open Source Card in Apple HTC Dust Up
March 17, 2010
The goslings and I are not attorneys. We are addled geese, and we do not understand the ins and outs of litigation. The article “Apple’s HTC Patent Lawsuit Is a Bluff” presented some angles on the Apple HTC patent matter. HTC seems to be a more convenient target than Google because HTC is manufacturing Android phones. These devices have some shared DNA with Apple’s iPhone. The write up suggests that Apple is engaging in some saber rattling. Litigation is expensive and risky, particularly if the parties cannot reach an out of court settlement. Juries can be darned exciting. For me, the most surprisingly passage in the write up was:
Android’s open-source status creates all kinds of logistical and legal problems for Apple. The company really doesn’t want to be labeled with a big Scarlet Letter as an open-source opponent. Apple has benefitted from open-source community development. It’s a vocal group Apple doesn’t want to piss off. Then there are all the nasty legal issues and potentially damaging precedents should Apple make a frontal open-source assault.
Android, as new Googler Tim Bray pointed out recently, is not about open source. The idea is that Apple does not want to be hoisted on the open source noose.
My view is that open source is becoming a highly charged phrase. Marketers, programmers, and investors have their own view of the concept. If the write up is correct, will Google use its open source approach to create more problems for Apple? There are some advantages associated with open source. But there are also some advantages associated with the proprietary approaches taken by companies like Apple.
Open source “plays” have a dual nature. Viewed one way, open source decreases the “lock in” that most vendors covet. Viewed another, open source could be a kinder, gentler form of getting people into a more spacious walled garden.
One thing is certain. The Apple patent matter will be with us for many months and there will be twists and turns as Apple builds out its server centers, gets serious about search, and expands into cloud services for its chain of devices.
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2010
Free. The bane of real journalists. I did this without compensation or the hope thereof, and I will report this to the event manager at the National Press Club.
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