Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers
From: Bernd Petrovitsch <bernd@firmix.at>
To: Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org>
Cc: Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au>,
       Ben Nizette <ben.nizette@iinet.net.au>, v j <vj.linux@gmail.com>,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
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Organization: http://www.firmix.at/
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:20:57 +0100
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On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 17:41 -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Bernd Petrovitsch wrote:
> > On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 18:40 +1100, Nick Piggin wrote:
> >> Rhetorical question: what stops me from taking somebody's copyrighted
> >> work, stripping the copyrights or falsely claiming to have a license
> >> to redistribute it, then selling it?
> > 
> > No one.
> 
> Well, that's not quite true, is it?  This little microcosm of life has 
> its checks and balances, and certainly strives for an equilibrium.
> 
> You make a choice, as in Nick's example, to balance the risk of being 

ACK.

> caught, being sued, being shamed, and/or being avoided by customers 
> against the perceived rewards.

ACK, *iff* you get caught.

But I cannot stop you if you just do it. Perhaps I can stop you later on
if I find it out, can proove it sufficient to go to court (or at least
threaten enough) and have the economical power to do it.

> Negative incentives are present, is the overall answer, even if they are 
> not immediately obvious and spelled out in excruciating detail.

Of course. And given the cases on gpl-violations.org I fear I'm right.

	Bernd
-- 
Firmix Software GmbH                   http://www.firmix.at/
mobil: +43 664 4416156                 fax: +43 1 7890849-55
          Embedded Linux Development and Services

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