[Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] GPL enforcement actions

[David Woodhouse]

On Tue, 2015-07-07 at 14:34 -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> Would having a Lawyer be present also be required. That way we don't
> have everyone saying BS about what the law actually implies. Having a
> lawyer there as just someone to keep things real would be nice.

Lawyers will present whatever opinion they're paid to present. There is
no "right" answer until/unless it's seen in court. And then the ruling
only applies to specific circumstances. And is only binding in certain
jurisdictions, as you suggested. And until it's appealed.

I don't think a discussion about 'the true meaning of the GPL', or its
interpretation under specific legal systems, would be particularly
productive.

I think it would be good, though, to have a better understanding of
what people *want* the GPL to mean and what they *think* it means —
perhaps better phrased as "what they would pay a lawyer to argue".

The point is that we aren't attempting to reach a simple resolution
with a 'right answer'. There are parties with different desires — from
demanding strict compliance with the *maximum* they can argue for the
GPL to mean, to basically wanting to act as if it's a BSD licence, in
order to avoid scaring commercial users away and feeding FUD stories
like this one¹.

It would be useful to have an idea of where the average core developer
falls within that spectrum — that was the first specific thing I was
hoping would come from the proposed session.

The other specific goal (and perhaps the more important one) was to
have a coherent report about the enforcement actions and behind-the
-scenes negotiations w.r.t compliance that there is so much
misinformation and politicking about.

To that end, we should probably invite Bradley Kuhn or Karen Sandler
from SF Conservancy to talk about their efforts. And someone from the
LF TAB will presumably also be there to discuss the compliance
viewpoint from the LF side.

-- 
dwmw2
¹ http://sdtimes.com/from-the-editors-when-did-open-source-software-get-so-scary/