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

[Linus Torvalds]

On Fri, Aug 26, 2016 at 12:33 PM, Jeremy Allison <jra at samba.org> wrote:
>
> These days we rely on Conservancy doing the kind of back-room negotiation
> that they are really good at, and they've never failed us on this. Lawsuits
> *are* a last-ditch nuclear option.

Jeremy, I trust *you*.

But I do not trust Bradley, for example.

Bradley talks the talk here when called out on it, but elsewhere he
clearly sees enforcement not as just a last ditch nuclear option. I've
heard that complaint from people in private conversations, but you can
find it in public posts too.

For example, we had a really nasty issue with Patrick McHardy, and
sadly, the companies involved apparently didn't dare talk about it for
fear of bad press (even if the badness was from our side). I was
actually informed by Karen that the SFC finally made the thing public
(thanks Karen - I really appreciated that), but when I went looking
for it I find Bradley Kuhn making comments like these:

  http://lwn.net/Articles/695014/

Let me highlight that l;ast sentence:

   "Finally, while discussions about GPL and its derivative/combined
works requirements are basically “old hat” to our community, the
discussion is completely new to the Courts. We'll have to bring the
question to a lot of Courts in a lot of different ways to get clarity.
But, once we do that, then we'll know, and everyone can proceed with
more certainty."

Look, guys. This is Bradley EXPLICITLY talking about using the courts
as a way to "clarify" issues.

So _excuse_ me for not finding Bradley Kuhn very trustworthy on this
issue. He's on public record on doing exactly that I am arguing we
should *NOT* be doing.

Lawsuits aren't about "clarification". They aren't something we should
hope for in order to "proceed with more certainty".

> Full disclosure: I'm on the Conservancy Board of Directors, so I obviously
> agree with their mission.

Please, see above. If you're on the Conservancy board of directors,
maybe you should clarify with Bradley, who is listed as _president_ of
the board, what that mission actually is?

Because right now, I'm getting some _very_ mixed messages.

                  Linus