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FSF Statement on Violation of GPL by RTLinux

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the interesting-stuff dept.

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.

3 of 256 comments (clear)

  1. Copyright Holder? by Zwack · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, Who IS "THE" copyright holder? Linus? A consortium? Would some of the larger distributions be interested in combining together to fight this thing? RedHat/SuSE/Mandrake would do for a start...

    I wonder what RTLinux have to say too...

    Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

    Z.

    --
    -- Under/Overrated is meta-moderation, and therefore is Redundant.
  2. The Open RTLinux Patent License by mblase · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...is listed on their site here. Anyone who can translate this into plain English, please do so. IANAL.

    1. Re:The Open RTLinux Patent License by TheFuzzy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As an unlicensed contract lawyer, it's actually pretty clear ...

      The patent restriction requires all users of the RTLinux code to comply with the GPL or make a seperate commercial license with Yodiaken. This is, IMHO, a good thing that extends "copyleft" to the patent world.

      On the other hand, the Patent adds some additional restrictions not normally contained in the GPL:

      5. To require any recipient of your product based on RTLinux code to send an e-mail to Yodiaken with their contact info;

      6. To keep detailed records of commercial uses of RTLinux, to be furnished to Yodiaken on demand.

      All of the other clauses either repeat the above or support the terms of the GPL.

      Frankly, overall Yodiaken seems to be a staunch upholder of the GPL and using his patent to uphold it. I can't understand why Stallman is freaking about Yodiaken's demand to collect a little demographic information.

      Surely this is something that could be worked out with Yodiaken or simply ignored? Sheesh!

      -Josh