GPL concerns maintain user freedom

Posted May 16, 2006 9:51 UTC (Tue) by grouch (guest, #27289)
In reply to: GPL concerns maintain user freedom by einstein
Parent article: GPL concerns halt Kororaa live CD (NewsForge)

brainless? hmm. I almost sunk to your level just now but thought better of it. While bignose did a clever logical inversion, it suffers from the same basic weakness that the other anti-nvidia posts do - namely the illusion that the tiny, cantankerous and demanding market segment of gpl-only desktop customers is in a position of strength, and that they can dictate terms to commercial vendors who sell 95% of their product to ms windows users.

There was no "logical inversion" by bignose. It was a nicely logical counter to an emotional, irrational rant.

I have no clue what "gpl-only [sic] desktop customers" to which you refer. However, there appears to be considerable market influence by those who choose and support the GPL. Perhaps the strongest example is when Sam Palmisano proclaimed that IBM couldn't match the community's efforts and still provide an acceptable return for their shareholders. Of course, that was 5 years ago and there is probably a bit more influence involved now than when IBM was swayed.

If you look at Jonathan Corbet's article, Kernel Summit 2005: The hardware vendors' panel, you will find this quote:

The next speaker was Andrew Vasquez from QLogic. His brief talk went over some of the hassles he has had to deal with. At the top of the list was firmware blobs. They create big patches and have GPL issues. Interestingly, he said that the firmware issues, along with pressure from "a major distribution," are motivating the company to move its firmware back into the device. If the driver does not have to load firmware to make the device function, these issues go away.
Since, as he put it, "a double-digit percentage" of QLogic's sales are for Linux systems, providing good support (and keeping the community happy) matters to the company.

[Emphasis added]. "A" generally means just 1. It seems reasonable to assume that all together have more influence than 1 will have, so I think maybe your characterization of the "strength" of GPL users is a bit off. The above is not an isolated incident. I seem to have heard about other little businesses, such as HP and Intel, being convinced that opening drivers can be a good thing.

Since nvidia provides the best linux drivers available anywhere, why should they be criticized for how they choose to develop them? BTW nvidia claims to have legal obligations not to disclose the intellectual property of other parties which is contained in the hardware specs and API. OK, sounds entirely possible to me.

Your opinion of the quality of nVidia's drivers for Linux has nothing to do with Kororaa's problem, so far as I can see. Maybe it was part of the motivation for your emotional response? Any alleged encumbrances nVidia suffers with their drivers is also not Kororaa's problem.

Kororaa's problem appears to be someone claiming the right to demand Kororaa cease distributing Kororaa's LiveCD, based on an alleged GPL violation. A copyright owner has the standing to demand a cessation of infringement. Is the one who emailed Kororaa a kernel developer? I didn't see that being claimed, yet the emailer bases the demand on violation of "the linux [sic] kernel license". Now the file COPYING that came with my Linux has this at the beginning:

NOTE! This copyright does *not* cover user programs that use kernel services by normal system calls - this is merely considered normal use of the kernel, and does *not* fall under the heading of "derived work". Also note that the GPL below is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation, but the instance of code that it refers to (the Linux kernel) is copyrighted by me and others who actually wrote it.

That seems to cover permission to use binary modules with respect to Linux.

What about the GNU software on the CD? Take a look at What is the difference between "mere aggregation" and "combining two modules into one program"?:

Mere aggregation of two programs means putting them side by side on the same CD-ROM or hard disk. We use this term in the case where they are separate programs, not parts of a single program. In this case, if one of the programs is covered by the GPL, it has no effect on the other program.

That appears to make it necessary to combine those non-GPL drivers with something besides the Linux kernel to be a violation of the GPL for other programs on the LiveCD. Just having the programs on the same CD doesn't trigger. Just in case, though, ...

Does the email complainer hold a copyright in any of the rest of the GPL software on the LiveCD? I can't tell. It would not appear to be so, based, again, on the reference to Linux. If you look at Who has the power to enforce the GPL, you will see:

Since the GPL is a copyright license, the copyright holders of the software are the ones who have the power to enforce the GPL. If you see a violation of the GPL, you should inform the developers of the GPL-covered software involved. They either are the copyright holders, or are connected with the copyright holders.

Who is the emailing complainer and what copyright does he or she hold that provides the power to demand ceasing of distribution?

The whole thing looks bogus. I suspect it's either someone who thinks the unethical use of terror tactics is excusable when used to promote ethical software, or it is someone who is looking for a way to discourage the use of the GPL under the ruse that it is tyranny, rather than protective of the freedoms of software users.