The rise of copyright trolls

Posted May 3, 2017 11:35 UTC (Wed) by aggelos (subscriber, #41752)
In reply to: The rise of copyright trolls by armijn
Parent article: The rise of copyright trolls

Now there is a possible conflict between EU packaging regulations and a *strict* reading of the GPL (as pushed for by several people) and it might be impossible to satisfy both requirements (and you are simply not going to win from Brussels). And that is just one of many possibly conflicting sets of rules.

I was going to ask for some instances of commercial products running afoul of the EU packaging regulations due to text that is included because of an obligation to a third party, but I see you already shifted your claim to "a possible future clash" and then to "many laws in various jurisdiction that might be conflicting with the GPL that likely we don't know about".

Would you kindly drop the unsubstantiated speculation and point to _specific_ cases that constitute problems so that there can be a meaningful discussion? Otherwise, this all sounds like fearmongering.

The rise of copyright trolls

Posted May 3, 2017 12:47 UTC (Wed) by armijn (subscriber, #3653) [Link] (1 responses)

I didn't shift anything. Please read more carefully.

It seems that a few of you are trying to put *me* on trial here for flagging a serious issue that companies are having (trolling because there is no social norm around compliance which is a different problem than general non-compliance with the GPL). I understand the anger, but it is not very productive.

The rise of copyright trolls

Posted May 3, 2017 13:20 UTC (Wed) by aggelos (subscriber, #41752) [Link]

I specifically pointed to where I noticed the shift. If I have misread, please explain how.

My impression is the "anger" as you perceive it, comes from how the disproportionate the talking up of the "potential" issues is to the evidence brought forward. Personally, I'm all for hearing your reading of the EU packaging directive to justify a potential conflict with the GPL and less for how this "could be bigger than patents" (attributed to Coughlan), nebulous "uncertainty" (your comment here), "I really wish it were as simple as that.<EOM>" and other such fearmongering.

So yah, it could happen that you'll make a clear case and be faced with anger and denial. But AFAICT this hasn't happened yet.