From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261473AbULUTLF (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:11:05 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261464AbULUTLF (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:11:05 -0500 Received: from canuck.infradead.org ([205.233.218.70]:52235 "EHLO canuck.infradead.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261473AbULUTFe (ORCPT ); Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:05:34 -0500 Subject: Re: Linux 2.6.9 and the GPL Buyout From: David Woodhouse To: "Jeff V. Merkey" Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, jmerkey@gadugi.org In-Reply-To: <20041220212723.GA8634@mail.gadugi.org> References: <20041220212723.GA8634@mail.gadugi.org> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 19:04:32 +0000 Message-Id: <1103655872.6111.118.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.2 (2.0.2-3.dwmw2.1) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: 0.0 (/) X-SRS-Rewrite: SMTP reverse-path rewritten from by canuck.infradead.org See http://www.infradead.org/rpr.html Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, 2004-12-20 at 15:27 -0600, Jeff V. Merkey wrote: > We are adopting Federal Copyright and Trademark law, and Federal Patent > law into our courts. We are also enacting trade secret laws that make it > easier for folks to claim trade secrets on Open Source code for > individual authors. Why? You're not a signatory to the Berne Convention and thus surely you don't need to honour it? You can just re-use the GPL'd code without our permission, and make your law permit it. You could adopt US copyright law with exceptions for the Linux kernel. There's precedent for such exceptions -- see what the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has to say about Peter Pan, for example: http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1988/Ukpga_19880048_en_28.htm#sdiv6 And enacting the US patent law is absurd -- why would you want to copy something as broken and abusable as that? -- dwmw2