Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:38:29 +0000
From: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>
To: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Cc: Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu>, Alan <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
       Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>, Greg KH <gregkh@suse.de>,
       Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>, Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>,
       Martin Bligh <mbligh@mbligh.org>,
       "Michael K. Edwards" <medwards.linux@gmail.com>,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19]
Message-ID: <20061221153828.GA4038@ucw.cz>
References: <20061214003246.GA12162@suse.de> <22299.1166057009@lwn.net> <20061214005532.GA12790@suse.de> <Pine.LNX.4.64.0612131954530.5718@woody.osdl.org> <20061214161750.GB3388@stusta.de> <20061214163347.4f1be668@localhost.localdomain> <20061214171749.GA29982@thunk.org> <20061214195136.GD3388@stusta.de>
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On Thu 14-12-06 20:51:36, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 14, 2006 at 12:17:49PM -0500, Theodore Tso wrote:
> > On Thu, Dec 14, 2006 at 04:33:47PM +0000, Alan wrote:
> > > > The trick is to let a lawyer send cease and desist letters to people 
> > > > distributing the infringing software for 1 Euro at Ebay.
> > > 
> > > Doesn't that sound even more like the music industry ? Pick on Grandma,
> > > and people who've no clue about the issue. It's not the way to solve such
> > > problems. The world does not need "The war on binary modules". Educate
> > > people instead, and talk to vendors.
> > 
> > .... or like Microsoft, who is threatening to make war on end-users
> > instead of settling things with vendors.  (One of the reasons why I
> > personally find the Microsoft promise not to sue _Novell_'s end users
> > so nasty.  Microsoft shouldn't be threatening anyone's users; if they
> > have a problem, they should be taking it up with the relevant vendor,
> > not sueing innocent and relatively shallow-pocketed end-users and
> > distributors.)
> > 
> > One of the things that I find so interesting about how rabid people
> > get about enforcing GPL-only modules is how they start acting more and
> > more like the RIAA, MPAA, and Microsoft every day....
> 
> Please don't think or imply I'd plan to do this, I'm only saying that 
> there's a risk for users in such grey areas.
> 
> It could be that someone who wants to harm Linux starts suing people 
> distributing Linux. If your goal is to harm Linux, suing users can 
> simply be much more effective than suing vendors...
> 
> It could even be that people distributing Linux could receive cease and 
> desist letters from people without any real interest in the issue
> itself - "cease and desist letter"s are so frequent in Germany because 
> the people who have to sign them have to pay the lawyers' costs that are 
> usually > 1000 Euro, and that's a good business for the lawyers.

Something is very wrong with German legal system, I'm afraid.

							Pavel
-- 
Thanks for all the (sleeping) penguins.
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