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

[Linus Torvalds]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 4:02 PM, Jeremy Allison <jra at samba.org> wrote:
>
> Dealing with legal and compliance issues is *mandatory* for all
> open source projects larger than one developer and their dog
> with a github account.

You state that as an absolute fact, but there is nothing that really
backs that up. An as mentioned, there really are very real arguments
against your "fact".

Quite frankly, after having watched a few videos of Bradley talking
about what he does and _why_ he does it, I really would never want to
have him or the SFC represent Linux in court. Ever. Not unless they
make it very clear that their agenda has changed.

Why? Because he explains how he feels that "strong copyleft" is
inherently good, and Linux is the only remaining project big enough
and meaningful enough to force legal attention on the GPL.

In other words, his publicly stated motivation for license compliance
isn't for the good of the kernel - it's for the good of his license
enforcement.

Quite frankly, if you let people like that be in charge of your legal
team, you're crazy. That's insane. I'm not insane.

The only people I'd ever let be in charge of a lawsuit around Linux
are the people who have the best interests of Linux in mind.

Definitely not people with an agenda, where Linux is just the *tool*.

We need to be very clear about this. The only possible situation where
license enforcement makes sense is when it's good for the *project*.
Not when it's good for license enforcement.

                      Linus