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This "issue" with the GPL is ridiculous. "Complying with the law is annoying and expensive, why would anyone bother?" Replace "GPL" with "OSHA" or "child labor
by hiptobecubic 15y ago
This "issue" with the GPL is ridiculous. "Complying with the law is annoying and expensive, why would anyone bother?"
Replace "GPL" with "OSHA" or "child labor laws" and the stupidity of this argument becomes readily apparent. You are licensed to use the software given certain conditions are met. You meet the conditions or you do not use the software. Gaining a competitive edge is no justification for breaking your contract.
Start a media streaming service that just pirates everything; non-compliance would be a huge advantage there.
- mjg59 15y agoThe world is full of businesses who ignore legal requirements because they think the risk of prosecution is low and the benefits are worthwhile. Software isn't a special case. What's unusual in this case is that Google's happily making money off the companies breaking the law and doesn't seem to care.
- Dylan16807 15y agoBut google does that all the time with adsense.
- ZeroGravitas 15y agoSurely in this scenario, Google is actively hurt? You argue that, in the short term at least, these individual companies that are part of the Android Ecosystem can avoid costs but surely the ecosystem as a whole would produce more, better and cheaper phones if they could be forced to take the long term view. I'm also not sure how many of the various reasons given are plausible given that HTC can and do release the source, but simply delay it for whatever reason. Is compliance really not the norm amongst businesses that sign up with Google to ship the market etc.?