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Red Hat License Challenged

Posted by michael on from the challenge-is-good dept.

An anonymous reader writes: "David McNett has noticed an apparent discrepancy between the Red Hat Linux EULA and the GPL. He has written an open letter to the FSF asking for their opinion on the matter. Does Red Hat have the right to "audit your facilities and records" to ensure compliance with their license?" McNett misreads the Red Hat documents. Their contract is for the various services, not the software, and for the services they are entitled to demand whatever concessions they think the market will bear.

2 of 391 comments (clear)

  1. What's with this obsession with public litigation? by Boss,+Pointy+Haired · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm getting a bit tired of all this.

    If two parties have a legal dispute it should be taken up in private between themselves - ideally limited to necessary personnel and their legal departments.

    You should not use "open letters" and press releases as part of what could become a legal process.

    Too much media attention after all can cause cases to be thrown out of court.

    Look at SCO and their press statement "we're going to revoke IBM's license at midnight Friday...." I'm sorry, but that is pathetic behaviour and something that should be a private matter between the two companies legal representatives.

  2. Re:What? by autocracy · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    You think that's bad? You should see how nasty it's gotten on Slashdot when it comes to complaining about proper grammar. On that note, before somebody else says it: End why is it that... And why is it that... Don't forget the spelling of "stuf" either...

    I don't know what causes concern with such petty things (other than that in this case you did have a high typo rate ;), but it seems to be overly prevalent for whatever reason. I think perhaps the best answer is to just pretend it's not there... especially when it comes to a story that answers itself and removes the point of debate (which I believe is what the site is really about... and what's with that self-answering issue anyway? Why post it?).

    Opposingly, laws are the things that will restrict us most now that the Interweb(C)(R)tm has become mainstream and everybody wants in. Personally, I'd like to see control swing back to the hands of the technical elite weilding power through their command lines; Congress wouldn't. So legal issues are important. I still maintain this story was one of the stupidest I've seen on Slashdot though...

    Now, everybody applaud the self-answering comment ;)

    --
    SIG: HUP