From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: riel@surriel.com (Rik van Riel) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 12:23:49 -0400 Subject: Kernel contributions from organisations and individual privacy In-Reply-To: <4E5779AD88B2F040B8A7E83ECF544D1A603600@SJCPEX01CL03.citrite.net> References: <55791A7C.1030904@mrbrklyn.com> <20150611142829.GC17984@kroah.com> <55799E35.5080608@mrbrklyn.com> <20150611153813.GA5058@kroah.com> <5579B9D3.9030208@mrbrklyn.com> <20150611175700.GF22639@kroah.com> <20150611232623.GA2026@www.mrbrklyn.com> <557A1BBF.1070007@surriel.com> <4E5779AD88B2F040B8A7E83ECF544D1A60330D@SJCPEX01CL03.citrite.net> <557A35A0.5070608@surriel.com> <4E5779AD88B2F040B8A7E83ECF544D1A603600@SJCPEX01CL03.citrite.net> Message-ID: <557C5915.7020909@surriel.com> To: kernelnewbies@lists.kernelnewbies.org List-Id: kernelnewbies.lists.kernelnewbies.org On 06/12/2015 07:29 PM, Jeff Haran wrote: > What is the downside to a large company for violating GPL? They are likely to not get sued in the first place. If they are they can delay using court procedures until they've changed their code to not violate or GPL'ed it. Worst for them is paying legal fees and a contribution. I am guessing those aren't huge, not for a big company. Seems like unless there is some monetary sting like a piece of the proceeds on the sale of violating products, there is no deterrence and you guys will be in court for the rest of time chasing a never ending stream of new violators. Creating a new kernel for one's product is not as easy as it sounds. Even replacing the kernel with a BSD kernel, and then replacing the userland code, and possibly writing a bunch of new device drivers, is very much non-trivial. Replacing Linux with something else in a product could easily cost several millions of dollars. -- All rights reversed.