Message-Id: <200410012040.i91KesYq002111@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>
To: "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@drdos.com>
Cc: jmerkey@comcast.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone 
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:46:47 MDT."
             <415DB427.7050108@drdos.com> 
From: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
References: <100120041740.9915.415D967600014EC2000026BB2200758942970A059D0A0306@comcast.net> <200410011934.i91JYU2t014578@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>
            <415DB427.7050108@drdos.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/signed; boundary="==_Exmh_-2070448264P";
	 micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Date: Fri, 01 Oct 2004 16:40:54 -0400
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
Content-Length: 2039
Lines: 54

--==_Exmh_-2070448264P
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

On Fri, 01 Oct 2004 13:46:47 MDT, "Jeff V. Merkey" said:

> And the hate mail is the only thing that will arrive.   The GPL doesn't 
> really seem
> to protect anyone since the copyright holders really can't do much with 
> it. 

That's because usually, the guilty vendor realizes that their position is
untenable, although this may require escalating to having a lawyer send
a postal version of the hate mail.  Digging back through the lkml archives
will show that with the possible exception of SCO, vendors *will* end up
Doing The Right Thing once prompted (and given a chance to get The Right
Thing through the pipeline)....

 I've
> got a bunch of people using GPL code I've put out there in all sorts of 
> commercial
> products and Can't do anything to them for failing to return changes.

There's no requirement they return changes to *you* other than politeness.
They're required to make your GPL code plus their changes available to
*their customers*, which is a different set of people.

Now, if your source isn't made available to their customers, *then* you
have an actionable situation....

> They can always
> say they didn't accept the license then convert the code into their own IP .

Nope, they *specifically* can't do that.  Which is why SCO saying the GPL
is invalid but still distributing a Linux from their website is likely to
come back and haunt them grievously in their IBM lawsuit...

--==_Exmh_-2070448264P
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Exmh version 2.5 07/13/2001

iD8DBQFBXcDWcC3lWbTT17ARAicLAKDZF17kIwZp/zxWRAhtMWETTsBd/ACcCFtS
TwedLKaZYMbOsbnOoaZsY4M=
=BYaG
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--==_Exmh_-2070448264P--
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/