Slashdot Mirror
FSF Threatens GPL Lawsuit
An anonymous reader writes "Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News reports that OpenTV is violating the GNU General Public License. He notes that the Free Software Foundation is threatening to file a lawsuit in the case. If you haven't become an associate member of the FSF yet, now would be a good time!" Note that Gillmor is reporting the FSF's claim of violation, not making it himself.
Hello. I wish to offer the first ever Slashdot Troll For Hire service. This service is totally free and should provide hours of entertainment for many /. readers. As you can see, I have a +1 bonus with Excellent karma. Truly good trolls are rare, and although I possess considerable skill myself, I am by far no master at trolling. So, I am offering my +1 bonus to the rest of the /. troll community in an effort to increase my exposure to high quality trolls.
If you would like me to post your troll you must only do the following:
- Post your troll in response to this journal entry (I will add more entries as comments become disabled).
- Mark your reply as a troll with "(TROLL)" in the subject line, so I do not confuse samples with conversation.
- If you troll requires special instructions for getting ASCII art, page widening, etc. please include them in a response.
I will post high quality trolls as soon as possible. If and when my karma dips below excellent, I will have to take a recovery period where I will rejuivinate it by posting intelligently. Once excellent karma is reestablished, I will resume posting trolls from the queue.
Thank you for your contributions! I am looking forward to what your creative minds will offer.
Join Tor today!
I think what you'll see happen in this case is that it will be granted cert in the 14th circuit, but they will kill it with a pocket veto before it grandfathers in a relatively new concept like the GPL.
Banach-Tarski Overdrive
If you haven't become an associate member of the FSF yet, now would be a good time!
Why? Because the ultimate evil is infinging on the GPL and there is a massive need for the Free Software Foundation to have some money?
Now lets get into the article itself. This is another example of a company that is willing to cooperate, but has had a few snags in their plans. They've said they're going to post the code online (which they don't have to do) so lets see if they do. Personally I think the whole idea of treating users of open source as "the bad guys" is really getting old. They were called on a mistake they made and they're doing their best to resolve it.
Everyone says to encourage the use of open software because you're not limited to propritary license agreements then jumps right down the back of anyone who even looks like they might be in violation of an untested license. Quite frankly I'd like this to go to court and see how it all pans out. Then maybe there would be more behind the FSF than Stallman constantly running his preverbial mouth through emails and essays.
Either way this is not "Good Press" for open software by anymeans.
And yeah I keep saying open software because I also hate the argument of free software doesn't mean open software crap.
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
Everyone lost.
We could have ALL (minus 1) had the benefit of this software for free.
The very first person would have to purchase it, but then could freely redistribute to the world.
By locking out the GPL we all lost use of this software, we also lost the ability to improve the software.
Anyone who wanted a feature that was not added lost out.
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted!
Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
How about I just use Microsoft Windows instead?
Now go back to your hole.
Am I the only one here who's absolutely sick of hearing about licensing this-licensing that? The GPL and FSF are just as bad as any proprietary software company, at least in attitude if not outright practice. The word "free" indicates to me "the freedom to do whatever the hell you want", but this is a far cry from the actuality of the FSF.
By all means, it is within reason and legal right for the FSF to enforce the guidelines of the GPL..but at the end of the day, bully tactics are still bully tactics, no matter who's doing the pushing. This kind of bureacratic pushing and shoving over licensing agreements is simply childish and counterproductive.
Before you toss the flames my way, just bear in mind that i'm stating a very simple point: Despite RMS and his ideals about software, there are multiple elements within the software world that are just as "evil" as proprietary software. This is one among many.