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

[Jeremy Allison]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 07:43:29PM -0600, James Bottomley wrote:

> However, Some developers do trust you and you've built a coalition of
> the willing around that and you're off selecting targets; but our
> problem, as a community, is that what you do with your coalition
> affects all of us and impacts the project we care about deeply.

The fact that some developers felt it necessary to join a
coalition to enforce their copyright rights suggests that
they don't feel that the current structures around protecting
Linux are doing a good enough job of doing so. You might
want to think about why that is.

On another note - why does Bradley get such a bad rap ?

Personally, and having worked with him long enough, I
think it's because when Bradley and Conservancy have
to step into a situation it's because it's already gone
beyond the normal methods of community engagement and
policing.

My opinion of Bradley is that he is similar to Winston Wolf
in Pulp Fiction. You don't call him in until you need
him, but when you "got no friends in the 818 and someone
needs to pick up itty-bitty pieces of GPL-violating code
from your upholstery" then he's the guy whose number you
need to remember :-).

We as developers usually get to play good cop to other
developers, asking them to do the things that they really
would like to do anyway. When they're prevented from doing
that for whatever reason then you do need a bad cop to
make the case to the people who are controling the actions
of said developers that cooperation is good for all in the
long run.

Without someone willing to do that thankless task - and it
*IS* a thankless task as this mailing list thread has so aptly
proven - all the good cops are left doing is asking if
you need more coffee and donuts whilst you decide if
you want to do the right thing. Some people will never
get there on their own (see my previous comments about
Apple, EMC, Isilon and NetApp for examples).