SonWon, how can any healing occur when we still have ongoing violation that bleeds like an open wound and a violator that continues to speak of the GPLv2 in disdainful terms while continuing to use software licensed under it?
As things stand, Anthrax is no better than Mediatek, Hauwei, ZTE, Xiaomi, or whatever random Chinese company you can think of that has played fast and loose with the GPL. This isn't the past either. These are files that were released days ago and were pulled either because enough people complained or it was a calculated move to have only enough people download the files and then once again follow the pattern of disavowment (eg: "what distribution?"). Is it not enough that this was already bad enough months ago that I sought and received advice from esteemed free software representatives? Was it not clear enough back then when I had to paste an email from Richard Stallman verbatim, something he'd probably never do himself and I still feel awful about, just to prove the point that he actually said that Anthrax could not claim any non-existent special privileges that would exempt them from the GPL, vindicate their work, and justify their attitude? I can't fault the FLOSS community for being apathetic towards such small-fry violators like the Anthrax crew, but everyone must realize that they feed off the lack of legal repercussions. So much so that they claim without evidence that they've never been sued for violations, have been vindicated in courts of law for unrelated software matters tenuously tied to an HTC NDA, or are in the process of being harassed by Red Hat employees outside of their legal team. The boldest lie of all was claiming that gpl-violations had approved their work. Now SonWon, explain to me how this situation can be improved at all unless Anthrax pulls a 180 and act like everyone else who uses GPL software (Chinese OEMs notwithstanding)? - Eric On Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 8:19 AM, SonWon <[email protected]> wrote: > Nuno, > > You are making perfect sense. Somehow the community needs to heal and > move beyond the past. None of this is healthy and should be placed behind > us. Let's heal this wound and move forward. > > > On Tue, Apr 8, 2014 at 6:52 AM, Nuno Brito <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Hi Eric, >> >> I don't feel like giving them an inch to operate anymore. >>> >> >> >> I noted your request at https://lkml.org/lkml/2013/5/18/19 and was >> looking at is happening: folks hiding websites, blaming each other for >> stealing patches, private "clubs" to access the binaries but access to >> source. In my opinion this goes contrary to what Free Software was intended >> in the first place. But unfortunately, this happens everyday and way too >> often. >> >> In fact, I felt it myself after releasing my first project as Free >> Software just to see how competitors came up with "similar" features very >> quickly, without really providing the code nor credits. In fact, this still >> happens with my own software and I've learned to deal with it. >> >> On the other hand, this developer (despite what he writes in public) does >> acknowledge that what he is doing is not correct, we just need to consider >> his defensive actions: making the forum private, removing mirrors and so on. >> >> >> I doubt that a legal action would ever happen on this case, I doubt that >> in the long term we (as public end-users) would ever benefit from killing a >> hobby project that so many others find useful. >> >> Don't get me wrong, I don't support closing down GPL code nor Linux. What >> I mean is that everyone here might benefit from this situation if the >> developer willingly becomes a compliant Free Software contributor, rather >> than outlawed, hunted down and marked as "scum" (in his own words). >> >> >> Eric, what about writing an email to Mr. Stallman about this situation? >> >> I don't mean an email calling for arms and legal action, but rather a >> request to place this developer and Mr. Stallman in contact. Who knows? >> Perhaps a friendly resolution can be found from this interaction. >> >> Would be a win-win situation. >> >> >> With kind regards, >> Nuno Brito >> >> >> --- >> email: [email protected] >> phone: +49 615 146 03187 >> >> >
