[LINK] HP balks at patent provision in GPL update

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2006-08-07 at 14:10 +1000, Craig Sanders wrote:
> Hewlett-Packard said it would be content with the patent portion of General
> Public License version 3 if a few changes, in capital letters below, were
> added to Section 11:
> 
> You receive the Program with a covenant from each author and THE conveyor FROM
> WHOM YOU RECEIVED the Program, and of any material, conveyed under this
> License, on which the Program is based, that the covenanting party will not
> assert (or cause others to assert) any of the party's essential patent claims
> in the material that the party conveyed, against you, arising from your
> exercise of rights under this License. If you convey a covered work, you
> similarly covenant to all recipients TO WHOM YOU CONVEY THE WORK, including
> recipients FROM YOU of works based on the covered work, not to assert any of
> your essential patent claims in the covered work.

Let's say HP gives me a work containing some element covered by a patent
owned by HP. I can pass the work on to you, but you are no longer able
to pass it on to others, because you are not protected against HP. You
are protected against ME, but not against HP.

Or am I reading it wrong?

Regards, K.

PS: The first occurrence of "of" seems out of place.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)