On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:35 PM, Bradley M. Kuhn <[email protected]> wrote: > Denys Vlasenko forwarded a comment from Tim Bird, > which was Posted Feb 1, 2012 6:52 UTC (Wed) by tbird20d on LWN: >>> Tim Bird says this: No. You misunderstand what "unrelated products" >>> means. It means all the TV sets and digital cameras, which we >>> properly release GPL source for. What I don't want is for some >>> trivial mistake by GPL amateurs at some ODM supplier to some obscure >>> product group to result in SFC having review and veto authority over >>> our major Linux-based product lines. This is simply unacceptable. > > I think Tim is pretty confused here, as I can't relate what he's saying > above with Conservancy's usual enforcement work. Tim has never been involved > with a Conservancy enforcement action, so I believe Tim's retelling half-true > stories that he's heard elsewhere, and there's a misunderstanding about > what was required.
Really? So Sony can violate the GPL in some small product, and it would not affect other product lines, like TVs? >>> ...Sony has standards in place that product teams are supposed to >>> follow for GPL compliance. Unfortunately, I can't be sure that every >>> team is following them, or won't make a mistake. In particular, I can >>> 't be sure of this for sub-contractors. Sub-contractors may claim >>> they have given you corresponding source, but have not. It happens. > > I think it's somewhat strange for a large company to say: "We can't > control what my company does". They have resources thousands upon > thousands of times greater than Conservancy, yet we can find the time to > review their product and give them feedback. Surely they have the > resources to fix their compliance problems? You must not know how a big company works. It's not a matter of resources; it's a matter of control and organization. The bigger a company is, the more difficult it is to have tight control over all areas. I can imagine Sony TVs having a policy of complying with the GPL, and some other product line having an entirely different opinion, and without a company-wide stance to open source, the communication between SFC and Sony lawyers wouldn't be fruitful, and Sony TVs would be affected negatively, even if that division did everything right. Cheers. -- Felipe Contreras _______________________________________________ busybox mailing list [email protected] http://lists.busybox.net/mailman/listinfo/busybox
