[GNU/Linux-discussion] License and Enforcement
Ashwin Mansinghka
http://k3rnel.net/2012/03/16/delayed-gpl-compliance/
excerpts from the above article .....
"Is there any way, other than through legal action, to force a company to comply with the license?"
"What’s the point of having a license that states that you must also give the source, if you can just intentionally delay giving out the source, or not give it out at all?"
which further led me to a much more thought provoking article on Google's misdemeanors.
http://lwn.net/Articles/474198/
excerpts from the above article .....
"...Matthew says, "Google makes money off other people's violation of the GPL,"...."
"If nothing else, contempt for the GPL will breed more of the same; as Matthew said, "In the absence of enforcement, GPL compliance only works if it's the norm." By ignoring its partners' GPL violations, Google is, at best, undermining that norm; at worst, it could be setting up Android (and possibly Linux) for a serious fall......"
While reading the thread on "Joomla and Plugins" and now the above blog / article, I believe the true value of any license is the enforcement muscle it has.
In the first excerpt of the first reference, one can observe the despair and a lack of courage to fight.
Taking Google to court can bring a lot of GOLD, or will it be misery only?
Or is it the lack of confidence in GPL's ability to fight?
Has GPL become a toothless tiger?
What is more important - Identifying and fighting violations and enforcing compliance Vs. Campaign to prefix GNU?
with Regards,
Ashwin
A. Mani
<ashwin...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://k3rnel.net/2012/03/16/delayed-gpl-compliance/
>
> excerpts from the above article .....
>
> "Is there any way, other than through legal action, to force a company to
> comply with the license?"
What else?
Either the company complies or SFLC or other bodies take it to court.
The other way would be to ban proprietary closed source s/w and s/w
patents altogether.
SFLC is doing well and a large number of lawyers are already seeing
good business in GNU GPL enforcement. It is always going to be
difficult for developers to enforce it themselves.
There are differences between GPL V2 and V3. For compulsory
distribution of source, there is Affero. Developers in countries with
weak legal structure should prefer an Affero license with a clause for
"compulsory distribution of source".
Best
A. Mani
--
A. Mani
CU, ASL, CLC, AMS, CMS
http://www.logicamani.co.cc
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