From: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone
Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 14:03:16 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <cjs2o5$th6$1@gatekeeper.tmr.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <100120041740.9915.415D967600014EC2000026BB2200758942970A059D0A0306@comcast.net>
jmerkey@comcast.net wrote:
> Who cares about GPL violations in Linux . What can anyone do about it anyway. The FSF
> isn't going to sue anyone unless someone give them the money to do it. Most of this
> banter and name calling people do about it is a waste of time. What punishment will
> anyone get for it. A few people writing mean emails and finder pointing -- Yeah --
> this will really stop someone from doing it. If you give your code away GPL, or not
> you have just done just that. Tigrian is correct in his statements.
>
> Even if you review it and make a fuss it does nothing to stop people. The GPL is flawed
> since it does not require people to go back to the copyright holders and demand a license
> for commerical use. This is the only way you will ever stop these people. So instead
> of being whinny babies about it, fix the GPL and add this language. 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.
>
> Oops. Too late. Linux has a huge trail of everyone's code under the GPL so you cannot
> re-release the code under another license unless the entire code base is re-written. So
> anyone can fork it at any point and claim, "we never accepted the license even though
> we download and use the code. Guess what, this is legally valid to say and totally
> circumvents the GPL, they just have to leave your copyright notices in place.
This subject line seems to have attracted a bunch of odd legal
misinformation, which as noted has been refuted by the courts. However,
I do note that Microsoft is using the work Linux in their ads, and not
putting on the trademark symbol. It is probably good for someone to look
at that, because a trademark can be lost if it is not defended (think
Kleenex or Asprin). The ads just have a note in tiny print saying
something 'some of these words may be trademarks of their owners.' I
believe if the owner notifies them they have to add the MT or (R) symbol
and state the name of the holder.
Clearly I'm not a lawyer, but since there was a TV show about "lost
trademarks" I'm pretty damn sure it can happen.
The GPL is alive and well at the moment, I hope the trademark is as well.
--
-bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2004-10-04 18:02 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
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 [this message]
-- 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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