From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: bjorn@mork.no (=?utf-8?Q?Bj=C3=B8rn_Mork?=) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2015 17:40:19 +0200 Subject: Kernel contributions from organisations and individual privacy In-Reply-To: <4E5779AD88B2F040B8A7E83ECF544D1A603600@SJCPEX01CL03.citrite.net> (Jeff Haran's message of "Fri, 12 Jun 2015 23:29:51 +0000") 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: <87381vmxb0.fsf@nemi.mork.no> To: kernelnewbies@lists.kernelnewbies.org List-Id: kernelnewbies.lists.kernelnewbies.org Jeff Haran writes: > What is the downside to a large company for violating GPL? Losing all rights to the software in question forever is probably the largest downside. If we talk about the Linux kernel (as I assume we do in this forum) then I have a hard time believing any company can survive that. Note that loosing the rights to use the Linux kernel will not only affect the products your company produce, but also your rights to *use* any Linux based product. The legal department would also end up with a limited selection of phones they could legally use. So, I'd say the downside is infinite. Why do companies still risk this? For little or no gain whatsoever? Or even negative gain, since we all know that you get many times back for every contribution you make to open source. I guess it is the result of tech staff and legal staff not talking together. The legal staff will hopefully have some understanding of the GPL, and know that violating it leaves them without any rights to the software in question. But they will probably assume that those rights are for sale, or that it is possible to buy the rights to an equivalent software product. The technical staff will know that this is impossible, but they are probably not aware of the finer details of the GPL. So there you go: Noone understand the full consequences. Bj?rn