Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753783AbWLWVg0 (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:36:26 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1753782AbWLWVg0 (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:36:26 -0500 Received: from gprs189-60.eurotel.cz ([160.218.189.60]:36474 "EHLO amd.ucw.cz" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-FAIL) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753783AbWLWVgZ (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Dec 2006 16:36:25 -0500 Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 22:36:02 +0100 From: Pavel Machek To: Adrian Bunk Cc: Theodore Tso , Alan , Linus Torvalds , Greg KH , Jonathan Corbet , Andrew Morton , Martin Bligh , "Michael K. Edwards" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: GPL only modules [was Re: [GIT PATCH] more Driver core patches for 2.6.19] Message-ID: <20061223213602.GA29627@elf.ucw.cz> References: <20061214003246.GA12162@suse.de> <22299.1166057009@lwn.net> <20061214005532.GA12790@suse.de> <20061214161750.GB3388@stusta.de> <20061214163347.4f1be668@localhost.localdomain> <20061214171749.GA29982@thunk.org> <20061214195136.GD3388@stusta.de> <20061221153828.GA4038@ucw.cz> <20061223112429.GP6993@stusta.de> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20061223112429.GP6993@stusta.de> X-Warning: Reading this can be dangerous to your mental health. User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.11+cvs20060126 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 3102 Lines: 59 On Sat 2006-12-23 12:24:29, Adrian Bunk wrote: > On Thu, Dec 21, 2006 at 03:38:29PM +0000, Pavel Machek wrote: > > 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. > > The point that you can take legal actions against anyone distributing > something that violates your rights should be present in more or less > all legal systems. > > What might be special in Germany is only that you can demand your costs > after successfully taking legal actions. What is special in Germany is fact that any random lawyer can demand $1000 (not his cost, his profit) if you distribute code that is not his... Pavel -- (english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek (cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html - 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/