[Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] GPL defense issues

[James Bottomley]

On Wed, 2016-08-24 at 23:09 +0200, Jiri Kosina wrote:
> On Wed, 24 Aug 2016, Greg KH wrote:
> 
> > I discussed this last year with you, and others.  By us talking 
> > about this in a setting like this, we open ourselves up to being 
> > part of any lawsuits that are discussed.  That's _really_ dangerous
> 
> Is it? What if a person actually wouldn't mind to participate because 
> he actually believes in what the lawsuit is trying to achieve, and 
> would be happy to provide his testimony in a lawsuit if need be?

Even if it's VMware compelling you as witness for their case?

> Sure, there are corporations/employers involved (either due to
> copyright assignment, or due to other contract details), but that's
> up to every individual to judge and decide himself (together with
> his/her employer of course).
> 
> But I don't understand your implication that having yourself dragged 
> into a GPL enforcement lawsuit is somehow a personal disaster.

The specific problem is that we, as kernel developers, are used to
giving frank and unvarnished opinions, which are totally unlike the
carefully phrased non-statements that lawyers usually make.  Fine, if
what you've said helps Christoph or other plaintifs, but consider what
happens if an unguarded statement of yours ends up helping the alleged
violator because it can be construed in a way you didn't intend.  This,
exactly, is the fear and, I think, you would regard something like this
as a bit of a disaster.

James