Author: Peter Todd 2016-10-14 10:57:57
Published on: 2016-10-14T10:57:57+00:00
In a Bitcoin development discussion, Sergio Demian Lerner expressed his concerns about the Defensive Patent License (DPL) v1.1. He stated that it is dangerous for Bitcoin users as it does not necessarily protect future generations of users from being attacked, which could lead to Bitcoin technology becoming proprietary and less valuable. Companies that join DPL can enforce their patents against anyone who has chosen not to join, therefore, most users of Bitcoin could be currently under threat of being sued by Bitcoin companies and individuals that joined DPL in the same way they might be under threat by the remaining companies. Even if users joined DPL, they may still be asked to pay royalties for the use of the inventions prior to joining. However, one can adopt the DPL irrevocably by stating that they will never invoke the 180-day notice provision. The definition of "Bitcoin users" is a problem as different forks may have different views. Furthermore, it would be reasonable to consider changing the Bitcoin Core license to something like an Apache2/LGPL3 dual license to ensure the copyright license also has anti-patent protections.
Updated on: 2023-06-11T20:22:42.694168+00:00