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Michigan Diagnostic Software Case Big Win for GPL
Pig Hogger writes "Many people claim that the validity of the GNU Public License has not been tested in court in the US. Well, it just had been, in Michigan, in a case that validated open-source car diagnostic software against the pretension of automakers who want to keep it secret. But don't take my word for it; read the story on GROKLAW." It's actually the Society of Automotive Engineers involved here; DrewTech (the developers in this case) nicely donated half of their settlement money to the SAE.
This case was settled out of court. Thus there was no judicial ruling on the GPL or any of the facts of the case. To try to spin this as a huge win for the GPL is just an indication that it is a slow news day in the SCO v IBM case and the person or persons known as "PJ" is grasping at straws to fill her little blog kingdom with something, anything at all remotely connected with the GPL.
<linuxluser class="übernerd"><i>LINUX IS READY FOR THE DESKTOP!</i></linuxluser>
Read the Groklaw article carefully. The case was settled, and the judge did not rule on the GPL's validity; indeed, the lawyer for the wining side claimed that the GPL won, even though he said that the judge only issued one ruling in the case, and that was to allow the plaintiffs to take the deposition on a third party.
The GPL has persuasive value, but it has not yet been upheld - and, unlike the "free software" zealots, I am in some doubt as to whether it will be when it finally gets to a test.
Disinfect the GNU General Public Virus!
You nailed it. Copyright and intellectual property laws are evil--until the next GPL violation article. Witness entire thread discussions about how "piracy isn't theft" and then witness those same people referring to "stolen" GPL code.
I just think it would be helpful for people to think through their previous positions before firing off another reactionary post to a Slashdot article. It would be helpful because it would strengthen and refine your position rather than invalidate it through contradictions.
I don't know why for certain, but could it be the selective reporting, the intellectual dishonesty the almost instantaneous deletion or worse the hiding of dissenting posts, the sanctimonious, shrill tone, the insistence on idealogical purity and obeisance from PJ's subjects, or the cultlike instantaneous questioning of the motives and character of anyone who dares to disagrees with the group leader's declarations, or the mounting paranoiac and grandiose rhetoric, or perhaps the binary thinking and us versus them, good versus evil, in groop versus exiles, with us or against us tone that has grown and metasticised over the years to galactic proportions almost to the size of PJ's ego?