No exception.

Posted Jan 27, 2006 11:50 UTC (Fri) by ekj (guest, #1524)
In reply to: No exception. by dwmw2
Parent article: A new FUD angle: securities laws

Linus doesn't officially have veto rights. He didn't collect copyright assignments, and doesn't really have any more rights than any other significant contributor. However, I suppose he does effectively have veto rights in one way... if I was bringing a lawsuit against a distributor of binary-only modules I might be inclined to back down if Linus specifically asked me to.

That's not what veto means. He is free to state his opinion. Yes, so is anyone, that's called free speech.

You are free to listen to him, if you want to listen to him. Yes, sure you are, but you are in no way obligated to listen to him.

It makes no sense whatsoever to say that Linus has defacto veto-rigths.

The only thing he does have is a lot of respect, making it more likely that many people will (voluntarily!) *choose* to listen to him on some issues.