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From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
To: "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@drdos.com>
Cc: jmerkey@comcast.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 16:40:54 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <200410012040.i91KesYq002111@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:46:47 MDT." <415DB427.7050108@drdos.com>

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On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:46:47 MDT, "Jeff V. Merkey" said:

> And the hate mail is the only thing that will arrive.   The GPL doesn't 
> really seem
> to protect anyone since the copyright holders really can't do much with 
> it. 

That's because usually, the guilty vendor realizes that their position is
untenable, although this may require escalating to having a lawyer send
a postal version of the hate mail.  Digging back through the lkml archives
will show that with the possible exception of SCO, vendors *will* end up
Doing The Right Thing once prompted (and given a chance to get The Right
Thing through the pipeline)....

 I've
> got a bunch of people using GPL code I've put out there in all sorts of 
> commercial
> products and Can't do anything to them for failing to return changes.

There's no requirement they return changes to *you* other than politeness.
They're required to make your GPL code plus their changes available to
*their customers*, which is a different set of people.

Now, if your source isn't made available to their customers, *then* you
have an actionable situation....

> They can always
> say they didn't accept the license then convert the code into their own IP .

Nope, they *specifically* can't do that.  Which is why SCO saying the GPL
is invalid but still distributing a Linux from their website is likely to
come back and haunt them grievously in their IBM lawsuit...

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  parent reply	other threads:[~2004-10-01 21:02 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 69+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2004-10-01 17:40 Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone jmerkey
2004-10-01 18:23 ` Jesse Pollard
2004-10-01 19:34 ` Valdis.Kletnieks
2004-10-01 19:46   ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-01 20:38     ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2004-10-01 20:40     ` Valdis.Kletnieks [this message]
2004-10-01 22:09 ` Jon Masters
2004-10-01 21:53   ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-01 23:51     ` Michael Poole
2004-10-02  2:00     ` Theodore Ts'o
     [not found]       ` <20041002064620.GA8568@galt.devicelogics.com>
2004-10-02 10:27         ` Jon Masters
2004-10-02 17:34     ` Alan Cox
2004-10-03 11:46       ` Willy Tarreau
2004-10-03 11:59         ` Jon Masters
2004-10-03 22:01         ` Alan Cox
2004-10-04  0:23           ` Kyle Moffett
2004-10-07 19:21       ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-07 20:24         ` Chris Friesen
2004-10-07 21:22           ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-07 22:32             ` Chris Friesen
2004-10-07 22:57             ` Hua Zhong
2004-10-08  8:19             ` Henning P. Schmiedehausen
2004-10-07 21:07         ` Rik van Riel
2004-10-07 21:16           ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-07 21:40         ` Kyle Moffett
2004-10-07 21:17           ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-07 22:02             ` Kyle Moffett
2004-10-07 21:29               ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-08 12:27                 ` Ingo Molnar
2004-10-08 18:24                   ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2004-10-08 18:42                     ` Ingo Molnar
2004-10-09  9:50                       ` James Courtier-Dutton
2004-10-08 12:16               ` Alan Cox
2004-10-07 22:18             ` Dave Jones
2004-10-07 21:51               ` Jeff V. Merkey
2004-10-07 22:41                 ` Dave Jones
2004-10-08  0:47                   ` Jeff Garzik
2004-10-07 23:50                 ` viro
2004-10-08  0:40                 ` Jesper Juhl
2004-10-08  0:59                   ` Jon Masters
     [not found]                     ` <20041008032034.GD3528@galt.devicelogics.com>
2004-10-08  7:15                       ` Jon Masters
2004-10-08 12:38                         ` Gene Heskett
2004-10-08 12:50                           ` Gene Heskett
2004-10-08 13:48                           ` Bruce Ferrell
2004-10-08 15:14                             ` Gene Heskett
2004-10-08  2:48                 ` Erik Andersen
2004-10-10  6:35               ` Brian Litzinger
2004-10-10 13:25                 ` Alan Cox
2004-10-10 22:26                   ` Jon Masters
2004-10-11 11:57                     ` Tonnerre
2004-10-08  2:40         ` Erik Andersen
2004-10-08  8:50           ` Bernd Petrovitsch
2004-10-08 11:08             ` William Lee Irwin III
2004-10-04 20:26     ` Jesse Pollard
2004-10-02 12:35 ` James Courtier-Dutton
2004-10-04 18:03 ` Bill Davidsen
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2004-09-29 13:44 Ralph Corderoy
2004-10-01 14:52 ` Denis Vlasenko
2004-10-01 14:20   ` Alan Cox
2004-10-01 15:59     ` Ralph Corderoy
2004-10-01 16:00       ` Alan Cox
2004-10-01 16:24       ` Jon Masters
2004-10-01 15:59         ` Alan Cox
2004-10-01 17:18           ` Jon Masters
2005-01-07 21:48           ` Jonathan McDowell
2005-01-15 13:43             ` Jonathan McDowell
2005-01-26 16:47               ` Jonathan McDowell
2004-10-01 17:24       ` Tigran Aivazian
2004-10-01 16:14     ` James Courtier-Dutton

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