Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 10 Dec 2003 10:38:33 -0800 | From | Larry McVoy <> | Subject | Re: Linux GPL and binary module exception clause? |
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On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 10:17:34AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > And in the 4 minutes since I've posted that legal doc you have consulted > > a lawyer and the lawyer told you this, right? > > Hey, you know I'm not a lawyer. > > I told you my opinion. And I'm not considering even _trying_ to circumvent > somebody elses copyright. > > You are the one who needs a lawyer, since _you_ are the one arguing for > potentially infringing on other peoples copyright.
I can understand your touchiness, it's not much fun living through tons of messages where people try and figure out how to circumvent your license. You have my sympathy.
On the other hand, let's be perfectly clear: I'm not in the business of making binary kernel extensions/modules/drivers/anything, I never have been in that business, and neither I nor anyone at BitMover nor any of our investors are contemplating that. In other words, _I_ am not about to violate anyone's copyright and I'll thank you not to accuse me of that again without some data to back it up.
What I am doing is saying that you are way over the line in a way that other people, who do not have your best interests at heart (nor the kernel's, nor the FSF's, nor the GPL's), are going to jump all over what you are saying and use it against you. In multiple ways. They will use it to say that you are just as bad as they are, you are trying to twist the system to your advantage to further your agenda. Which is exactly, I might add, what any corporation does. You've become quite corporate (aka one-sided) in your outlook recently. If case law is established that backs up your point of view, it is going to effect all of us in all sorts of ways that are almost universally negative for everyone except the corporation inflicting the pain. You may not create case law which helps your agenda and expect all the nasty folks to not grab at it and use it to help their agenda. The potential damage that this case law would inflict dramatically outweighs the benefit of spanking some company that is shipping a binary driver. Why can't you see it? Reread Ted's message, he stated it nicely. -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm - 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/
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