In a statement from the Boards of Directors of EDUCAUSE and The Sakai Foundation, they state that:
"The boards of directors of the Sakai Foundation and of EDUCAUSE recognize the patent pledge
announced on February 1, 2007, by Blackboard as a step in a more positive direction for the community, to
the extent that it offers some comfort to a portion of the academic community that uses open source or
homegrown systems. In the pledge, Blackboard states that it will not assert certain patents against open
source or home grown systems bundled with no proprietary software. We particularly welcome the
inclusion of pending patents, the clarification on the commercial support, customization, hosting or
maintenance of open source systems, and the worldwide nature of Blackboard’s pledge. We also appreciate
the willingness of Blackboard to continue with frank and direct dialogue with our two organizations and
with other higher education representatives and groups to work toward addressing these problems of
community concern.
Although Blackboard has included in the pledge many named open source initiatives, regardless of whether
they incorporate proprietary elements in their applications, Blackboard has also reserved rights to assert its
patents against other providers of such systems that are "bundled" with proprietary code. We remain
concerned that this bundling language introduces legal and technical complexity and uncertainty which will
be inhibitive in this arena of development…"
Read the complete statement here.
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