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Garrett: The ongoing fight against GPL enforcement

Garrett: The ongoing fight against GPL enforcement
[Announcements] Posted Jan 31, 2012 14:29 UTC (Tue) by corbet

Matthew Garrett has posted a complaint about an attempt to create a permissively-licensed busybox and calls for kernel developers to be more aggressive in enforcing their copyrights. "The real problem here is that the [Software Freedom Conservancy's] reliance on Busybox means that they're only able to target infringers who use that Busybox code. No significant kernel copyright holders have so far offered to allow the SFC to enforce their copyrights, with the result that enforcement action will grind to a halt as vendors move over to this Busybox replacement. So, if you hold copyright over any part of the Linux kernel, I'd urge you to get in touch with them. The alternative is a strangely ironic world where Sony are simultaneously funding lobbying for copyright enforcement against individuals and tools to help large corporations infringe at will."

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