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GPL in Court - Good or Bad?

Posted by Cliff on from the this-was-inevitable dept.

Irvu asks: "The Register has a lengthy opinion piece today about IBM's lawsuit, and the GPL. Barring a settlement this case will see the first test of the GPL in a court of law. Previously the GPL has functioned as a social contract with the implicit (albeit untested) force of law behind it. Any ruling now could radically alter the free-software/open-source landscape for good or ill. Andrew Orlowski dwells on these possible ills in his piece. What does Slashdot think? Is this test a good or bad thing? Do you have faith in the justice system (or IBM's Lawyers) to draw the right conclusions? And, how do you see any outcome affecting you?"

6 of 413 comments (clear)

  1. GPL * BSD/MIT License by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I personally hope that the GPL falls apart in court and people relicense their code under a BSD, MIT, or Artistic style license. The GPL is the worst thing to have happen to computing in the last 30 years.

  2. Re:OJ by SnatMandu · · Score: 0, Troll

    The legal system would have done just fine if the LAPD wasn't rife with racist guys who tried to frame an already guilty man

  3. No by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    The GPL is a bullshit license. It has no legal support.

  4. Law and Order by niko9 · · Score: -1, Troll

    If the GPL goes to court, I'd like to see Detective Lenny Briskow interrogate Linus, and then have one of those hot chick Assistan District Attorneys do the cross examination right before he get's sent to a pound me in the ass penitentiary. :p

  5. morons welcome the demise of corepirate softwar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    gangsters.

    how many fauxking felonious pickpocket billyonerrors are we supposed to need anyway?. that's remedial math for 'adults' if memory serves.

    long live the hobbyists, & their millions of soon-to-be users. the lights are coming up now.

  6. hapless troll -1 by screwthemoderators · · Score: -1, Troll

    If things go badly for linux, maybe the BSDs will get some long overdue publicity? Probably not, because the whole debacle would already been perceived as a tempest in a teapot if there were a better awareness of BSDs and binary compatibility. I don't mean to troll, but I'm disappointed that BSD still doesn't make the mainstream news media.

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