On Thu, Sep 05, 2002 at 07:26:36PM +0800, Andy Sy wrote: > PMana said: > > > never happens. But this is actually happening under our noses, > > as in the case of the PDA companies WindStone (Korea) and > > LinuxDA (China/Taiwan?). Both companies use Linux for their > > PDA/OS but neither one would give out the source code except > > at commercial prices. RMS is just one person and can not run > > after all these companies. > > Isn't this precisely the kind of thing the FSF should > be attending to? I guess its much harder and more > expensive to enforce in the international scene, but > if these companies were to sell their Linux-based PDA's > in the US... >
It would have to be Eben Moglen who is in charge of enforcing the GPL, not Stallman, as general counsel for the Free Software Foundation. There are also a number of other GPL violators out in the world, such as China's own Red Flag Linux (which doesn't come with any source code at all from what I've heard), but the fact is some of these countries refuse to recognize foreign copyrights, so enforcing any license at all is problematic. > > BTW, has the GPL ever been invoked in an actual court > > case and has it ever won? > > Not sure, but I'm fairly certain it has. At the very least, > I'm aware that Nvidia and MS has respected it by removing > GPLed code which, accdg. to them, were inadvertently added > to their drivers and other software. > Read what Moglen writes about enforcing the GPL: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/enforcing-gpl.html What Moglen usually does when he receives a report of a GPL violation of an FSF package is contact the violator privately, and most of the time that's enough. Some companies thought they were adhering to the GPL, but weren't, and are only too happy to follow any advice given to correct their error. They never insist on payment of damages to the Foundation for GPL violations, and only seldom require public admission of wrongdoing. The FSF believes that compliance with the license and assurance of future good behavior are the most important things, so you only very rarely hear about GPL violators. Nobody has yet been foolish enough to court the bad publicity that would come from an actual lawsuit with the FSF for GPL violations, and become "the villain that stole free software." Moglen says: "Look at how many people all over the world are pressuring me to enforce the GPL, just to prove I can. I really need to make an example of someone. Would you like to volunteer?" :) -- Rafael R. Sevilla <dido at imperium dot ph> +63(2)8123151 Software Developer, Imperium Technology Inc. +63(917)4458925 _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
