>> Lawsuits destroy community. They destroy trust. They would destroy all the goodwill we've built up over the years by being nice. > Goodwill means nothing wh

>> Lawsuits destroy community. They destroy trust. They would destroy all the goodwill we've built up over the years by being nice. > Goodwill means nothing when the law is being broken. It means nothing when licenses are not being enforced. Lawsuits can be used and abused by The Man (TM), big corporations or government or whomever, but they can also be used by you to get recompense when you have been hurt. You're right to say that there are some canards from Linus. In fact, each person in the email exchange frames their position at relative extremes - it's the nature of argument via email. But, he's got some very good points. To assume that an organisation of any size is monolitic in it's opinion is a problem and something that Linus' and Greg K-H's emails deals with well - there are always supporters and detractors for particular positions internally. It's also true that most organisations want to do the "right thing", but there are other constraints (whether those are cost, ignorance or fear) and barriers that have to be worked on. And, no-one likes to be threatened - threats of lawsuits whether direct or indirect change the nature of a conversation from being open to a risk assessment. > The stance he's taken will make corporate sponsors love him ... who'd rather "be nice" and "build community" than protect what's theirs As someone whose been part of a 'corporate sponsor' and who was responsible for compliance I personally don't think that's the case. Organisations are just people in a group - most of the people involved with FOSS want it to be successful and are involved because they chime with aspects of it's values. It's far better to assume that the person whose "doing it wrong" is mistaken or has problems than it is to assume they're being invidious: figuring out the 'how can we work together to get the right result?'. That's not to say that there aren't going to be some bad actors and that will need the threat or actual legal recourse. But it should be a long distant, last resort. Finally - there are definitely differences of opinion on what "doing it right" looks like. In the thread there are clear differences in beliefs about approach and what lessons past experiences show. And no one group has the gospel on "right" - SFDC, Linus or anyone else isn't the gospel of what various aspects of the licenses mean. That means there will always be discussions and compromise is required. If FOSS could get better at one thing, it would treating divergence in opinions as arguments amongst friends - rather than treating someone who doesn't agree as a total moron who should be burnt to a crisp in the fires of hades. Passion is great, but it has it's downsides!