Misleading

1. The open facts of the matter are that:
a) McHardy made settlements with or had sent clear cease-and-desist notices to GPL violators, part of which was to cease their violations or face penalties
b) The violators went on to violate again
c) Thus McHardy went to collect on the penalty clauses of his prior agreement with or warning to said violators

2. Those who say McHardy's intentions were bad or nefarious; that the violators were acting in good faith, and/or made only trivial violations; refuse to give details, never mind evidence. There are just claims to be in the know, or to know people who know, and that the details must be kept hush-hush, behind the scenes, cause... reasons, which we can't tell you.

So we have the basic, sparse facts that are available - which do NOT of themselves justify anything in 2. Indeed, the reverse.

And then we have 2, which we, the unwashed public out there who just read LWN, are meant to just take on authority, and ignore the only facts available in 1. We are meant to just take it for granted that GPL violators - corporates making money importing and selling products with GPL code - are the poor ickle good guys here, and McHardy is the bad guy for enforcing the licence on code he claims to have helped make (I know there are other questions there, but that's a distinct matter, and can be answered, inc. in court).

That appeal to authority, at odds with the (few) available facts, doesn't quite sit right with at least some of us.