I'm uncertain about OIN's membership and its benefits to the larger public. Is it just an exclusive club that benefits its members, or a means to provide everyo

I'm uncertain about OIN's membership and its benefits to the larger public. Is it just an exclusive club that benefits its members, or a means to provide everyone with IP safety regarding Linux and maybe other FOSS? One sentence in the press release suggests that only members benefit: > The OIN patent license and member cross-licenses are available royalty-free to any party that joins the OIN community. Still, their About page says membership is free:[0] > Any company, project or developer that is working on Linux, GNU, Android or any other Linux-related software is welcome to join OIN, free of charge or royalties. On the other hand, there are only ~2,600 members [1] - that sounds like a big number, but I would expect almost everyone to join. Are you protected if you are not a member? Why haven't more joined? I suspect that the answer may have something to do with the IP needs of software developers compared to those of users, and the latter don't need membership for some reason; but even then, 2,600 seems like a small portion of FOSS developers. [0] https://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about-us/ https://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about-us/ [1] https://www.openinventionnetwork.com/community-of-licensees/ https://www.openinventionnetwork.com/community-of-licensees/