Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S965069AbXBZKRN (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Feb 2007 05:17:13 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S965071AbXBZKRN (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Feb 2007 05:17:13 -0500 Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com ([66.249.82.233]:24574 "EHLO wx-out-0506.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S965069AbXBZKRL (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Feb 2007 05:17:11 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=b/N/FhS85bvqwXGy+oNOtkDJlBmktS7qyBr4yWjS3K4r30EdIELp2wRB6c6vQtOqT6cKKdHOy27/4AU1GL6vO04RdTvqCyxot0nuZgQRVPmw3tT7J5ym+xT7XOXTDWni6+68V5SMkZu0tdqjlEh+3u9gaWtdtS03MuDBvTnpi3w= Message-ID: Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2007 02:17:10 -0800 From: "Michael K. Edwards" To: "Trent Waddington" Subject: Re: GPL vs non-GPL device drivers Cc: Alan , "Pavel Machek" , davids@webmaster.com, "v j" , "Linux-Kernel@Vger. Kernel. Org" , "Neil Brown" In-Reply-To: <3d57814d0702251427r314ce9bbv8278e8f619743095@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <3d57814d0702191458l1021caeyaefd7775398c5f2a@mail.gmail.com> <20070225104211.GB2045@elf.ucw.cz> <20070225135208.6e2eab9c@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> <3d57814d0702251427r314ce9bbv8278e8f619743095@mail.gmail.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2727 Lines: 48 On 2/25/07, Trent Waddington wrote: > On 2/26/07, Michael K. Edwards wrote: > > I know it's fun to blame everything on Redmond, but how about a > > simpler explanation? > > Says the master of conspiracy. Yes, I rather chuckled at the irony as I wrote that one. :-) But there is a difference. I've provided you with independent sources for the basic data -- Nimmer and Corbin and dozens of appellate opinions for the universal contract nature of copyright licenses, guidestar.org for Form 990s, links that you can follow a couple of hops to two actual letters of opinion that Moglen has written suggesting "GPL circumvention" techniques, facts that you can verify about the financial dealings surrounding the formation and acquisition of Cygnus Solutions, the campaign to squeeze OpenSSL out of the GNUniverse, and the unreproducibility of commercial cross-compilers built around GCC. You don't have to believe a damn thing I say -- read the law and follow the money trail for yourself. If you care to know more about how the racket works, you can do your own damn homework and see if you reach the same conclusions I did two years ago. Subsequent events -- the forced merger of OSDL into the Linux Foundation, the flowering of the SFLC into the Software Freedom Conservancy, the sunset of Oracle on Sun and rise of Unbreakable Linux, the hocus-pocus around "license compatibility" as first Intel and HP, then Sun, knuckle under, switch to the GPL, and start pressing IBM and Oracle to do the same, the war of the "patent pledges" -- fit into the same pattern. I was disgusted then, and I haven't seen any reason to become less so. I don't actually enjoy this sort of muckraking -- it's dirty work and I have better things to do. Watch for more posturing about Microsoft/Novell -- funny how the distro that regularly pays Eben Moglen to give keynote speeches has been charging by the seat for years, but the distro that does a deal with the _other_ devil is threatened with being written out of GPL v3. Watch for -- but wait, I gave up ranting for Lent. Watch for anything you like, keep scanning the horizon for Moby Ballmer and his secret deals to keep you dual-booting into Windows for your frag-fests. When your pet shark in law professor's clothing decides _your_ arm would be tasty next, don't come crying to me. This really is the absolute last I have to say on this topic in a public forum, in 2007 anyhow. - 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/