Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone

From: Michael Poole <mdpoole@troilus.org>
To: "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@drdos.com>
Cc: jonathan@jonmasters.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone
Date: 01 Oct 2004 19:51:42 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <87u0tegfox.fsf@sanosuke.troilus.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <415DD1ED.6030101@drdos.com>

Jeff V. Merkey writes:

> Jon Masters wrote:
> 
> >>Then anyone who uses the code in a commerical enterprise will be required to get a
> >>license, and you can actually do something about it.
> >>
> >
> >They have a license. If they distribute products then they are bound
> >by the terms of the GPL and this is a pretty obvious license.
> >
> >
> Try enforcing it in court when they get a dozen of their engineers to
> lie and state they reviewed the code on one terminal and
> converted it by writing new code on another. There's no moral anything
> with some of these big companies and their employees
> will say whatever they have to. I've been there, in the real world,
> all GPL means is you are giving away your IP to whomever is running
> whatever effort and you have little recourse. The GPL is tough to
> enforce the way its worded for individuals. There's too much
> wiggle room for people to use.

Why don't you tell that to the netfilter core team?  If only they knew
what you did, they might give up their court case.  Except for the
minor fact that they already won.

US law addresses the conspiracy you suggest through several means.
However, *any* individual has problems seeking justice in US federal
courts unless they or their opponents have quite deep pockets.  Your
arguments are in no way specific to the GPL -- one could substitute
any other license name for "GPL" (or any tort for "copyright
infringement") and throw about the same FUD.

> Alan Cox in a previous email basically
> stated, " they are being nice and answering emails." Doesn't look
> like it takes much for these people to smooch and kiss up to
> folks. They will always come back to the table like foxes from the
> henhouse, with chicken feathers all over their lips saying "show me
> the chickens."

That's not what he said at all.  He said that they seem to be willing
to comply with the license, so it is a bad idea to beat them over the
head when one person (not even a copyright holder!) thinks he caught
them making a mistake.

Michael Poole