Corel "to fix" Beta Test License

terrified writes "According to the Debian Weekly News, Debian evangelist Bruce Perens has talked to Corel and they said it would be fixed. Here's the relevant text: "Corel has started a closed beta test of their Corel Linux distribution. Unfortunatly, they did so under a very restrictive license, that violates the GPL in several respects. The good news is that Bruce Perens has already contected Corel and we're promised that this will be fixed." I'm not sure about how they plan to "fix" it - isn't that a relatively easy thing to do, in light of the GPL nature of the code? The Debian Weekly News is available here. The text of the message Bruce sent to the Debian-User group is here. "

Comments

Corel is going to have to fix this.

[Amphigory]

Corel is going to have to fix this -- and soon -- if they are more serious about the Linux market than they were about the java market. The problem is not one of legal procedure. The breach would be cured long before this ever got to court. The question of whether this is, in fact, an internal distribution is irrelevant.

The problem is one of publicity. If Corel gets a reputation as a "borg" in the Linux community, they will lose most of their support from that community. The consequences could be dire. For example, a developer could do a license something like this:

This software is licensed under the terms of the GPL for everyone but Corel Computer Corporation. Corel must contact me for an outrageously expensive commercial license.

That is actually a perfectly conceivable license. For examples of selective licenses like this, see QPL or (kind of) the Perl license.

To summarize: if Corel wants to continue in the Linux market, they need to fix this license in internet time -- that is, today. Not next week, or next month. Today. Otherwise, they will be regarded as nothing but a bunch of hagers-on by the Linux community and their foray into Linux will be over.