On Wed, Jun 04, 2003 at 08:08:01PM -0700, Rick Moen wrote: > Dvorak: And what happens if there is an out-of-court settlement and IBM > does some under-the-table deal and suddenly emerges as the top Linux > vendor with the only legal license to use certain aspects of the kernel? > Reality: The moment those "aspects" are identified, all code that might > be encumbered gets discarded and rewritten from scratch. >
Another Reality: Dvorak has never read the GPL. IBM cannot get a legal license "to use certain aspects of the kernel" without licensing it free of charge to anyone and everyone. If they attempted to do so, Torvalds and the rest of the Linux kernel developers could sue them for copyright violation, as they would then be in violation of the GPL and be distributing the kernel without a license. -- Rafael R. Sevilla <dido at imperium dot ph> +63(2)8123151 Software Developer, Imperium Technology Inc. +63(917)4458925 "Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves." -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
