From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Feb 23 11: 9:32 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from iquest3.iquest.net (iquest3.iquest.net [209.43.20.203]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 5094611061 for ; Tue, 23 Feb 1999 11:09:29 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from toor@y.dyson.net) Received: (qmail 28275 invoked from network); 23 Feb 1999 19:09:25 -0000 Received: from dyson.iquest.net (HELO y.dyson.net) (198.70.144.127) by iquest3.iquest.net with SMTP; 23 Feb 1999 19:09:25 -0000 Received: (from toor@localhost) by y.dyson.net (8.9.1/8.9.1) id OAA03734; Tue, 23 Feb 1999 14:09:23 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <199902231909.OAA03734@y.dyson.net> Subject: Re: The GPL and the Robinson-Patman Act In-Reply-To: <36D2AF58.A2FB5E82@uk.radan.com> from Mark Ovens at "Feb 23, 99 01:38:32 pm" To: marko@uk.radan.com (Mark Ovens) Date: Tue, 23 Feb 1999 14:09:23 -0500 (EST) Cc: brett@lariat.org, dyson@iquest.net, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org From: "John S. Dyson" Reply-To: dyson@iquest.net X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL38 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Mark Ovens said: > > Surely the only way to enforce the terms of either the GPL or Berkeley > licence is through the courts, but could any organization in the free > software world actually afford such litigation (which I imagine would > run into millions of dollars in the US)? > > If FreeBSD Inc. were to take GPL'd code and add it to the source tree > under a Berkeley-style licence what could the FSF do about it? The 2 > comments quoted above suggest that the FSF could possibly afford legal > action against FreeBSD, but what if it was Sun, IBM, M$ etc. I can't > believe that they could afford to take on a company of that size. > > In other words does this not mean that the GPL etc. relies on other > people being honourable and observing the terms of the licence even > though they may not agree with those terms? > One of the basis of my beliefs is to follow the licenses of others, in meaning and legally. I could not knowingly violate someone elses license and be happy with myself. In a sense, the GPL world is depending on the honor of those who it is most destructive. -- John | Never try to teach a pig to sing, dyson@iquest.net | it makes one look stupid jdyson@nc.com | and it irritates the pig. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message