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GPL Code Found In OpenBSD Wireless Driver
NormalVisual writes "The mailing lists were buzzing recently when Michael Buesch, one of the maintainers for the GPL'd bc43xx Broadcom wireless chip driver project, called the OpenBSD folks to task for apparently including code without permission from his project in the OpenBSD bcw project, which aims to provide functionality with Broadcom wireless chips under that OS. It seems that the problem has been resolved for now with the BSD driver author totally giving up on the project and Theo De Raadt taking the position that Buesch's posts on the subject were 'inhuman.'" More commentary from the BSD community is over at undeadly.org.
His position is completely rational for those of us who have worked with Broadcom. Even their closed source stuff is often junk and requires tremendous effort to work around, with poor support and impossible management. Even after signing NDAs and GETTING chip specs or sample code, you're still left out in the dark.
Anything that manages to get out in the free world needs to stay there, and any reasonable person will do his best to ensure it does. Further, using the GPL as a weapon against Broadcom, forcing them to open up their specs is really to the collective advantage of everyone.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
I have read all the threads on the OBSD lists.
Without question, the Linux developer did not need to cc the whole word when first making his inquiry -- he should have contacted them in private. I would also suspect that the BSD developer was just using the Linux code as a drop-in replacement for the time being until he rewrote it with a BSD license. I do not believe the BSD developer was trying to steal anything or take credit for something he did not develop. He made a mistake, for sure, but I do not believe there was any ill will on his part.
However, the biggest story in all of this is just how freaking childish Theo is. I cannot for the life of me figure this guy out. He kills his own cause and make OBSD look like a playground for schoolyard bullies. Imagine how much better he and OBSD would have looked if they had responded to the initial mailing list post with something like: "Hey, we would have appreciated it if you had contacted us privately. In any event, we are quite confident there was no intent to take GPL code in violation of the license. However, we will discuss this, decide the appropriate remedy, and respond to you privately. Thank you for bringing this to our attention."
Matter solved, no drama. But Theo has to open his big fat mouth. Theo: it's called taking the high road, even if you didn't start it. Try it sometime.
Besides, Theo himself cross-posts to other lists all the time to incite flame wars. Just look at last month's FreeBSD-advocacy list -- he cross posted during a thread about the use of his dear Puffy on an anti-blob poster. Pot, meet kettle.
Did you read the thread? Did you even read the email you link to? You conveniently omit that if there is one person who "comes across as a bit of an asshole", it isn't Michael (hint, his name starts with a T). It was a mistake to do this public (although, I can understand it, I do not think he realized that this would be picked up by newssites, etc. Although arguably, that could have been avoided if Theo had not been so flaming, Marcus response was quite reasonable and the issue would have been quickly solved).
It turned a spectacle only after Theo responded the way he did. The correct response would have been "Oops, you are right, there seems to be a problem. We'll sort it out". With this response there wouldn't have been any spectacle and everybody would have been fine afterwards. Michael could have made first contact by email but equally well what he did was within reason. If Michael would have started be creating an thread on /.
that would have been out of line, but not this.
After all Marcus did copy code into his own project
stripping out the original copyright notice and distributed the result in violation of the copyright
Is this not the real beef in here?
>>> Nobody disputes that GPL code was committed to OpenBSD CVS.
Theo tried to dispute this many times by trying to ridicule Michaels point
by making strawmen about whitespaces and stuff.
It is just that Theo was not succesful when he tried to dispute this.
It is Bruce Perens' fault that UID numbers are paraded here on Slashdot, leading to an elitist attitude about low UIDs. Back in the day there were people who had fun masquerading as Bruce Perens in some of the threads. It led to taglines saying 'I am the REAL Bruce Perens' and other adventures. Eventually it led to UIDs being explicitly displayed at the top of every comment header. Which was essentially a roll-back of the formerly more egalitarian tone on /. The reason it is Bruce Perens' fault is that he rolled in here and insisted on the ability to capitalize on his 'real name' to get some cred. Oh well. More important to some than to others.
I am the Real Bruce Perens, by the way. Just kidding.
Really? I read him as being defensive of his contributors. Like a thinking, caring supervisor would. There's no question it could have been handled better. The very public airing of the violation was almost certainly intended to hurt rather than help. Theo made that point.
Every time something like this comes up, I hear a lot of "Theo is an asshole", but then I read the messages involved and I fail to see the assholery. He seems to be smart, articulate and protective of his project--as I'd expect him to be. About 70% of this bruhaha is juvenile "Linux vs. BSD" cockfights.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.