[raulk]

As I said in my article [1]:

Patents protect ideas and inventions. In most cases, patent assertion cases are not black or white — win or loose. Infringement evaluation is complex and costly. A lawsuit can cost hundreds of thousands or millions to file and pursue. You might have a 85% confidence that FB violated a patent of yours, but to even pursue it it’s going to cost you a lot of money.

If on top of that, you will need to invest to migrate away onto a different frontend framework first, and make sure that all your customers are using your new product version (what if you’re using React Native? your users may not upgrade the apps at once!), before you can even file the lawsuit, do you think that’s an honest, ethical usage of open source philosophy?

Bottom line: Open Source is not a “quid pro quo” trade. Open Source is about creating communities to build better software together. It should never be used as a marketplace to exchange people's rights.

[1] https://medium.com/consensusx/if-youre-a-startup-you-should-...

[jnbiche]

Thank you. You pretty eloquently summed up my thoughts about this entire situation. I'm sad, because Facebook runs some pretty cool open source projects. But I will no longer contribute to them if this is their attitude. It's about as far from community-oriented as I can imagine.

[chiefalchemist]

FB would be happy to replace the internet with Facebook. I think we've all known this for some time now. It's not their attitude, it's their entire reason for being. It's a form of totalitarianism that we don't have a word for; that's beyond most people's imagination.

It would be fitting for FB to change their motto (?) to "We're not evil either." Lol

[thecrazyone]

Good joke there :)

Do you believe Google also has shown intents to be totalitarian or "be evil" ?

IMHO Google has handled their enormous power and popularity very well.

Fair Disclaimer: I must confess I'm a google user, not affiliated to them in any other way (that I know of) though :D

[chiefalchemist]

It's not what I believe. It's what the "data" shows. Sure you can believe the words. But it's actions that matter. And in that context "don't be evil" is comical at best.

[chiefalchemist]

So ultimately patents boil down to the deepest pockets. Not that I'm naive, but that's a pretty shitty way to do such things.