Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.erols.net!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!insync!Gamma.RU!srcc!news.uni-stuttgart.de!news.ruhr-uni-bochum.de!nntp.gmd.de!not-for-mail
From: Holger Veit <veit@gmd.de>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: GPL
Date: 2 Feb 1997 17:44:24 GMT
Organization: GMD, Sankt Augustin, Germany
Lines: 40
Message-ID: <5d2jpo$bb1@omega.gmd.de>
References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <32ED1866.34F02393@indiana.edu> <5cl66d$l52@web.nmti.com> <5cmiuu$iud@garuda.synet.net> <5cokgi$alm@web.nmti.com> <L3U8y0gTz/TM091yn@ibm.net> <32F167BB.41C67EA6@freebsd.org> <0rnuc5.3e1.ln@zen> <5cvodo$hme@omega.gmd.de> <m23evgchq9.fsf@maxwell.sfhs.floyd.k12.ky.us>
Reply-To: Holger.Veit@gmd.de
NNTP-Posting-Host: borneo2.gmd.de
X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 unoff BETA release 961012]
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:155743 comp.os.linux.networking:67007 comp.os.linux.advocacy:82084 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2196 comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy:51646 comp.os.os2.advocacy:265131
In comp.os.os2.advocacy Neil Moore <amethyst@valjean.sfhs.floyd.k12.ky.us> wrote:
: Holger Veit <veit@gmd.de> writes:
: > Dream on. What's happening to me was the following: there is a company
: > which has made a port of gcc to some embedded controller. They want
: > DEM 3000 for a service contract and then give you binaries and sources
: > of this port "as an addition". When you ask them "GPL and free software,
: > and blurb, and blah, I would like to have the *free GPL'd* software" they'll
: > tell you: we are not a software company, we sell consulting for that
: > embedded controller, and some port of the gcc is just a courtesy, and
: > no, you won't get the gcc, you can buy support...circle,circle,circle.
[...]
: With anything like this, there is eventually going to be someone
: who is ticked off enough at this `abuse' of the GPL that he goes
: right ahead and redistributes the software he paid DEM 3000 for.
: When that happens, there is nothing the company can do about it,
: other than possibly terminate support (and that would be a good
: opportunity for the GPL to be tested out in court).
This is the theory, but if you had read further, this is unlikely to happen.
We are not talking about hobbyist's software, or software a hobbyist
is going to buy. Companies who use this code for product development are
unlikely to put this code - just for the sake to try out GPL - on their
FTP server, for profit of everybody (including their competitors), and risk
a trial in court to check the validity of GPL. BTW: in Germany, there does
not exist such a legal construct of a "software license" (you can buy or
lease software, but not "license" it - this is a typical American legal
thing), so general, international copyright rules apply here, which will
approximately say: this company has used non-patentable algorithms from
public sources, and modified them, which is their own intellectual property,
and if you put this stuff to a FTP server, you infringe their copyright -
it is not up to the judge to decide on possible transitive copyright
infringement by the company that ported gcc in this case. *bonk*
--
Dr.-Ing. Holger Veit | INTERNET: Holger.Veit@gmd.de
| | / GMD - German National Research | Phone: (+49) 2241 14 2448 or 2039
|__| / Center for Information Technology| Fax: (+49) 2241 14 2242
| | / Schloss Birlinghoven | XFree86/OS2 goes public!
| |/ D-53754 Sankt Augustin, Germany | V3.2 from ftp.xfree86.org
WWW: http://borneo.gmd.de/~veit/ | /pub/XFree86/3.2/binaries/OS2