-----Original Message----- From: kernelnewbies-bounces@kernelnewbies.org [mailto:kernelnewbies- bounces@kernelnewbies.org] On Behalf Of Rik van Riel Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2015 4:38 PM To: kernelnewbies@kernelnewbies.org Subject: Re: Kernel contributions from organisations and individual privacy
On 06/11/2015 07:26 PM, Ruben Safir wrote:
Not at all. You have a good point there are definitely legal situations other than relicensing which are problematic.
Lets say Apple decides that are going to take the Linux Kernel and alter it extensively, in order for it to work with a new hardware platform that they created. And lets say don't return the code base to the public. Now who is going to protect the license and sue them? You have literaly thousands of partiticpants who have standing now in this case.
That means a thousand possible plaintiffs.
s/Apple/VMware/ and you get this:
I don't see in that web site the amount of damages they are asking for. Maybe I missed it. Might get more money coming in for the plaintiff's lawyers if instead of asking for contributions that yield a tee shirt, it was constructed more like an investment, as in X% of total "contributions" gets the investor X% of (damages - legal fees) should they win. Might as well use the patent troll model to do some good for a change. 8^) Jeff Haran