Dave, Am 11.06.2013 um 15:53 schrieb Dave <[email protected]>:
> Long term I would be more concerned about some legal entity coming after > LinuxCNC and attempting to shut it down or at least inhibit its use. > Look at what happened with the EMC Corp over the EMC2 name. Certainly you can make that comparison. The question I would have is: how relevant is that comparison - and the case you cite - anywhere relevant to 'inhibiting use of LinuxCNC'? Having been on the receiving end of something very similar to a class action lawsuit, my answer to this is: if anything here was relevant, then it was EMC2 Corp's branding, naming rights and search engine results (and for sure not concerns about the string 'emc2' in some repo and absurd demands by some paid-by-the-hour gofers, but that is another story). Meaning: as for the vector 'inhibiting use of LinuxCNC', that exchange was meaningless. > That was minor compared with what could happen. As LinuxCNC becomes Please describe a comprehensible example attack vector, I have problems imagining 'what could'. > I am doubtful there is anything we can really do about that other than > to make sure that all code is licensed as GPL. If one is really concerned about such theoretical problems, which they are as I view them, I would suggest two practical action items to follow through which improve the project's capability to withstand such vectors besides yielding other very practical benefits. Those are: (1) modularize and slice-and-dice critical components, which might mean introducing new API's. Better modularisation reduces the damage done by throwing out disputed code (and we would already benefit now if we had more of that). As an example, I would rather have 5 implementations of motion each composed of a few smaller comps than a single one. Take the current motion module out: things grind to a halt. (2) encourage, and take appropriate steps regarding licensing, to maximize adoption by commercial users - that is, companies whose revenue depend on LinuxCNC remaining freely available. Besides other obvious advantages, that has the upside of enlargening the army, including attached coffers, which fights on your side when push comes to shove. - Michael ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
