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The implications of this might be much larger than most people realize, because of the GPL patent landmine, GPLv2 Section 7: > 7. If, as a consequence of a cou
by jwr 16y ago
The implications of this might be much larger than most people realize, because of the GPL patent landmine, GPLv2 Section 7:
> 7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason (not limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you, then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program.
- jdub 16y agoBut the key word here is "you".
- r00fus 16y ago"You" could mean Redhat or even Google (Android). This, if left to stand, is game changing (and bad, imho).
- vilhelm_s 16y agoFortunately, only the copyright holders (i.e. the people who have contributed code to Linux) could sue for GPL licence violation, so we can hope it's not in the interest of the Linux developers to stop all distribution of Linux...
- jwr 16y ago…but that's a lot of people. And companies.