From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 6 23:32:46 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08E0A106566B for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2012 23:32:46 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from tower.berklix.org (tower.berklix.org [83.236.223.114]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E2008FC08 for ; Wed, 6 Jun 2012 23:32:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mart.js.berklix.net (p5DCBF89A.dip.t-dialin.net [93.203.248.154]) (authenticated bits=0) by tower.berklix.org (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id q56NWhom037586; Wed, 6 Jun 2012 23:32:43 GMT (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (fire.js.berklix.net [192.168.91.41]) by mart.js.berklix.net (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id q56NWWgX008561; Thu, 7 Jun 2012 01:32:34 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from jhs@berklix.com) Received: from fire.js.berklix.net (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fire.js.berklix.net (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id q56NWJQ1096469; Thu, 7 Jun 2012 01:32:26 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from jhs@fire.js.berklix.net) Message-Id: <201206062332.q56NWJQ1096469@fire.js.berklix.net> To: Daniel Feenberg From: "Julian H. Stacey" Organization: http://berklix.com BSD Unix Linux Consultancy, Munich Germany User-agent: EXMH on FreeBSD http://berklix.com/free/ X-URL: http://www.berklix.com In-reply-to: Your message "Wed, 06 Jun 2012 12:45:48 EDT." Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2012 01:32:19 +0200 Sender: jhs@berklix.com Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is this something we (as consumers of FreeBSD) need to be aware of? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2012 23:32:46 -0000 > > Contract penalty clause maybe ? Lawyers ? > > A limited-liability company with no assets is judgement-proof. There's set up & running costs (time & money), & other exposure http://berklix.com/~jhs/mecc/ltd_gmbh.html Easiest done by those who have done it before, One would be careful, there's exposure to directors individual liabilities eg fraud laws perhaps in some scenarios, & not wanting to be struck off & listed as somone not allowed to be a director of other companies. > > Otherwise one of us would purchase a key for $99, & then publish > > the key so we could all forever more compile & boot our own kernels. > > But that would presumably break the trap Microsoft & Verisign seek > > to impose. > > > > Could it really be that simple? I doubt it. Even if so, best avoid one individual in the firing line. It's not nice being a small company director personaly targeted by lawyers of a rich malicious company. Being in another country gives little protection, remote lawyers hire local lawyers to harass. They don't even need a good chance of winning, inventive threats, stress & costs unpleasant. Best activate officials with big budgets & manpower to fight back. We should unite with other Free Source groups & approach & inform eg the Competition Commisioner of the European Union (which has already fined MS heavily before on anti monopoly issues) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Microsoft_competition_case http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23366103/ns/business-world_business/t/eu-fines-microsoft-record-billion/ I recall George Bush junior quashed the last go at breaking up Microsoft, but maybe the present USA govt. could be encouraged to fine MS, even if they don't fancy breaking the monopoly aka http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil Cheers, Julian -- Julian Stacey, BSD Unix Linux C Sys Eng Consultants Munich http://berklix.com Reply below not above, cumulative like a play script, & indent with "> ". Format: Plain text. Not HTML, multipart/alternative, base64, quoted-printable. Mail from @yahoo dumped @berklix. http://berklix.org/yahoo/