Because they haven’t thought through all of the possibilities.
If you are a startup, or dev shop (or anyone, really) this shouldn’t be a concern.
It isn’t just about you – it’s about the entire Free software ecosystem. If one is building tools for other companies to use, then it’s wise to consider that they may have different needs.
Software patents are essentially useless
Software patents suck and should be abolished, but unfortunately, they exist.
(a) use react, (b) have software patents that end up being worth something, and (c) facebook tries to come after you. The chances you (a) use react, (b)have software patents that end up being worth something to facebook, and (c) facebook tries to come after you-- AND (d) you end up in a situation where you can’t just switch out your view layer are actually zero.
Yes, d) is viable, if you have the resources to do that. Tough luck if your entire stack has FB dependencies though – e.g., Clojurescript, Immutable, Hack, Facebook’s own GraphQL library, nested npm dependencies.
The reason that we have all these amazing development tools today is because the last generations were vigilant.
Facebook is not going to come after your social network for cats CRUD app.
You are only thinking about your own situation and people like yourself. There are other things to consider, like: these things do matter to some companies and projects, possibly hindering adoption of software that contain these PATENTS files. Drupal is the biggest example so far.
Also, it creates an imbalance in the tech industry. Software patents are not just offensive tools, but are often used defensively.
Hypothetical example:
- Your company starts with no patents.
- Without warning, it becomes wildly successful, like a Yo or Snapchat.
- Suddenly you are a big player.
- You begin acquiring patents for defensive reasons.
- Facebook decides that your model is pretty good and copies your patented features.
- Your whole stack is riddled with Facebook’s PATENTS files: dependencies of dependencies of dependencies in NPM, etc. You have a choice to do an entire rewrite, but don’t have the resources, so you wait.
- You get into a patent war with some other company that is not Facebook.
- Because you didn’t enforce your patent claim against Facebook, it is invalidated.
- Facebook never even came after you, but you are now more open to attack by the third company’s lawsuits.
Yes, it’s unlikely, but this is entirely against the principles of Free software, and it isn’t what should be passed down to the next generation of developers.
The main point is that the effect of the PATENTS file is unknown, and that it creates uncertainty about what the licences mean. If the Free software community doesn’t do something about these PATENTS files, it may prompt other companies to see how much further they can push the boundaries. There are some situations where it might be a problem – not necessarily for you and your CRUD app, but for the Free software community in general.
The best solution would be to get Facebook to remove the PATENTS files and then they will be normal BSD software without any unknowns.
