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Where's the violation?

Where's the violation?

Posted Jun 24, 2023 9:00 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433)
Parent article: Kuhn: A Comprehensive Analysis of the GPL Issues With the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Business Model

A service agreement is not a copyright licence.

As far as I can see, all these "further restrictions" are Red Hat saying "you want a service agreement? This is the cost". The customer is completely free to say "No".

YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO FORCE SOMEONE ELSE INTO A BUSINESS DEAL ON YOUR TERMS.

The British Government tried it (during the war) with disastrous results for the affected businesses.

If you want to do business with Red Hat (ie said service agreement), then you are in a weak bargaining position. They write the contract. And as I said, if you don't like the terms you can walk. So as I say, the contract does not IMPOSE further restrictions. If you VOLUNTARILY agree to them there's no legal problem. And if you feel you can't refuse (someone called it "blackmail") why on earth did you start doing business with Red Hat in the first place? You didn't have to ...

Cheers,
Wol


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