FSF Statement on Violation of GPL by RTLinux

bkuhn writes "The FSF has issued an official statement on the GPL violation by RTLinux." nothign surprising here, basically they say that RTLinux is violating the GPL by not releasing the source to their Linux kernel mods, but since the FSF isn't the copyright holder, they can't do much about it. Now it's up to RTLinux to decide if they are gonna do the right thing or not.Update: 09/16 00:48 AM GMT by H : Please check out these comments for more information - it's not a source code violation, but a patent issue.

Comments

CmdrTaco made a factual error

[bkuhn]

CmdrTaco made a factual error in his statement above, so please do follow the link and read the details.

The violation has to do primarily with a patent license that imposes terms not allowed by the GPL.

This isn't much different matter than failure to distribute source code.

Re:Copyright Holder?

[JesseL]

I think Linus is the original copyright holder, but much of the kernel code now is copyrighted by it's respective contributors.

Re:I think Richard M. Stallman holds the copyright

[geekoid]

The kernel is Linux. not GNU/Linux.
Linux distributed with GNU packages are(acording to RMS)GNU/Linux

Once again you have it wrong

[SurfsUp]

basically they say that RTLinux is violating the GPL by not releasing the source to their Linux kernel mods

The violation has nothing to do with source code, which is freely available, it has everything to do with restrictions on use of the software - it is free only for non-commercial use. If you want to sell your program you have to buy a license. Interestingly, this is a case where GPL fanatics are sticking up for the rights of commercial users.

Next post could you please consider checking both your facts and your spelling? ;-)

So how is it implemented?

[Sabalon]

I think the case has been clear cut before that you can make modules binary only. So if that was the case, they should have every right to impose whatever restrictions on their module they want.

HOWEVER, I can not imagine that making Linux real-time could be done in a module and no changes whatsoever to any of the rest of the kernel - unless all the changes are GPL'd and released and they have a free and a professional version of a module which has some of the tweaks/functionality there.

I'm not saying that they are right, but given the nature of the legalise on the agreement on their site, either they have some major lawyers there, or they have an english->legalise filter, so I would think they hopefully understand the GPL.

Patent link here.

[small_dick]

Yodaiken's Patent on running the kernel as a RT process

Re:opposition to patents stifles innovation

[Genom]

Please.

Nothing stopped the RTLinux people from "innovating". Unless you define "innovating" as "using copyright to prevent distribution".

Nothing forced the RTLinux guys to use the Linux sources as their basis, and thus accept the terms of the GPL -- they could have used BSD sources and avoided these issues. Instead, they used the Linux sources, and accepted the GPL license they came with. Plain and simple.

Noone is saying that they couldn't innovate, or turn a profit. They just have to abide by the terms they agreed to when they used the Linux sources =)

Re:I hope they do the wrong thing.

[Azog]

Actually, I think there's a much more serious copyright violation of the GPL license going on. At least RTLinux makes the souce code available (contrary to the posted story, sigh, usual Slashdot fact checking...)

Anyway, the company LinuxDA has made modifications to Linux (the kernel) to run it on Palm Pilots. A demo version is freely available for download. (see http://www.linuxda.com/download/index.html)

There's a "Coming Soon" spot on that page for "Source Code For Linux Kernel". But it has been months, and no source has shown up.

Not only that, but they have been asked (by Rick Van Riel, one of the significant contributors and copyright holders of the Linux Kernel) to provide source.

They still have not provided source.

I sent them an email about this, and got the following form letter:

Dear User:

We are committed to the Linux Open Source Movement.

We are currently working on making the source code for the modifications to
the Linux kernel available. Please continue to check www.linuxda.com for
download availability.

Thank you for your continual patience and support.

Best Regards,
Linux DA Customer Support Team

I sent them another letter asking them if they thought they were violating the terms of the GPL by allowing months to go by without releasing the source, and if not, why not, but got no reply.

I also pointed out that it's not difficult to provide source (make mrproper, tar cvzf linuxda.tar.gz *, then ftp the file to the web site... it would take about 10 minutes.) Obviously they are purposely dragging their feet, and I'm a lot more worried that someone is getting away with that than the RTLinux patent thing.