Google Grants MapReduce License to Apache/Hadoop | Hacker News Reader

Google Grants MapReduce License to Apache/Hadoop

mail-archives.apache.org

54 pointscgs101920 comments

That is "don't be evil" demonstrated. Google could have kept GFS and MapReduce strictly confidential (no paper published, merely a patent) and sue those who implemented anything similar.

Microsoft had at one point used Hadoop and HBase (via the Powerset acquisition), they've also made their own MapReduce (Dryad) and Sawzall (DryadLinq) equivalents. It's admirable that Google resisted the temptation to patent-troll them (not that patent trolling has any actual benefit, it just sounds like a typical "evil big corporation" thing to do).

If Google were to sue Microsoft (or anyone else, for that matter) over their patent, they would not be patent-trolling, by definition.

Patent trolling is when some entity that does not practice the patent acquires it and uses it against others.

Dryad is not MapReduce. M/R is just a very simple case of what Dryad can do. But Dryad is not available for serious use outside Microsoft. Also Google only got implementation patent, it's only applicable to Hadoop, which is a Java-based clean room implementation of Google's M/R.

Zvi

> Dryad is not MapReduce. M/R is just a very simple case of what Dryad can do.

That's irrelevant ... if it touches on the claims of the Map-Reduce patent, then it infringes.

Being a company that releases stuff in the open sure is a disadvantage.

I expected them to do this - good for them. As much as I tend to distrust large corporations, Google has some coolness, and I can't think of another large corporation that I distrust less than Google.

The only one that's up there for me is Mozilla. The implementation of the Weave platform so far puts user privacy way above Mozilla's business interests. The dedication to open development and management is higher than Google's.

Instead of letting profits take precedence over their users, Mozilla puts self-aggrandizing wankery first.

Mozilla is not a corporation, it's a non-profit foundation: http://www.mozilla.org/foundation/

The Foundation owns the Corporation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation Still, I see what you mean - Mozilla doesn't generally act as a business would.

I suggest you try spending money with Google, then ask for some sort of customer support.

You might trust them a lot less after that.

That's a valid point for a business, but for a user it seems like google's focus is crystal clear. The interesting thing is, I think, that they focus on their real customers more than who people perceive to be their customers. The real customer for google is the billions who use their search, that's where all their money comes from. If you're paying for google checkout, or apps for your domain or one of their other services the truth is that you contribute next to nothing to their bottom line. I'd like all their paid services to be better but I understand why fundamentally they don't look after those customers as much as the ones who really pay their bills. In short, google makes their real money from people who don't pay them, that's who they care about.

I wonder if this means anyone can use MapReduce (even outside of Apache code). ON the other hand I see no mention of 'derivative works' in this section of the license.

So, yeah, I'm curious if this patent license is transitive such that people creating new works based on the Apache code can always use the patent license.

Apache Software License 2.0

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0.html

3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made, use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work, where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s) with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

The message seems to have disappeared. Here's the next message in the thread: http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/hadoop-general/2010....

What happens if I take the hadoop code and modify it? What about a very substantial modification?

licenses are granted to legal entities, not some code?

The submission seems to have dropped the last > of the URL, causing a 404.

Here it is as a tinyUrl:

http://tinyurl.com/36jzc7v

And lengthened:

http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/hadoop-general/2010...

dup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1287969

Ah, thanks. Can anyone point me to a reference on entering special characters in HN URLs and comments? If I had entered the URL properly, this would have been presented to me before I posted the link.

The link is a 404 for me. Is there a mirror or another link?

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