Understanding the New Red Hat-IBM-Google-Facebook GPL Enforcement Announcement
'Bruce Perens co-founded the Open Source Initiative with Eric Raymond -- and he's also Slashdot reader #3872. Bruce Perens writes: Red Hat, IBM, Google, and Facebook announced that they would give infringers of their GPL software up to a 30-day hold-off period during which an accused infringer could cure a GPL violation after one was brought to their attention by the copyright holder, and a 60 day "statute of limitations" on an already-cured infringement when the copyright holder has never notified the infringer of the violation. In both cases, there would be no penalty: no damages, no fees, probably no lawsuit; for the infringer who promptly cures their infringement. Perens sees the move as "obviously inspired" by the kernel team's earlier announcement, and believes it's directed against one man who made 50 copyright infringement claims involving the Linux kernel "with intent to collect income rather than simply obtain compliance with the GPL license." Unfortunately, "as far as I can tell, it's Patrick McHardy's legal right to bring such claims regarding the copyrights which he owns, even if it doesn't fit Community Principles which nobody is actually compelled to follow."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/12/02/2024240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
On Mon, 4 Dec 2017 09:14:52 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote:
'Unfortunately, "as far as I can tell, it's Patrick McHardy's legal right to bring such claims regarding the copyrights which he owns, even if it doesn't fit Community Principles which nobody is actually compelled to follow."'
I would say that’s an incentive for the kernel developers to dump his code as soon as they can. On the other hand, the kernel developers seem reluctant to even consider the possibility of suing anybody at any point. Yes, lawsuits do tend to make you look bad -- even after you have bent over backwards to try to ensure compliance over many years <https://lwn.net/Articles/311142/>. But ultimately the threat has to be real, because that is the only way to keep these big companies in line.
'Unfortunately, "as far as I can tell, it's Patrick McHardy's legal right to bring such claims regarding the copyrights which he owns, even if it doesn't fit Community Principles which nobody is actually compelled to follow."'
I would say that’s an incentive for the kernel developers to dump his code as soon as they can.
On the other hand, the kernel developers seem reluctant to even consider the possibility of suing anybody at any point.
Yes, lawsuits do tend to make you look bad -- even after you have bent over backwards to try to ensure compliance over many years <https://lwn.net/Articles/311142/>. But ultimately the threat has to be real, because that is the only way to keep these big companies in line.
I agree. If there are no real repercussions, why bother adhering to anything? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/
participants (2)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Peter Reutemann