Re: Possible GPL Violation of Linux in Amstrad's E3 Videophone

Gene Heskett
2004-10-08T15:14:45Z

On Friday 08 October 2004 09:48, Bruce Ferrell wrote:
>Gene Heskett wrote:
[...]
>>
>> Yeah there are Jon, and his initials are probably BG. I've been
>> following this thread, first in amazement, followed by disbelief,
>> since it started yesterday, and the only thing my 6th sense is
>> telling me is that this is an attempt to undermine the GPL by
>> someone like M$ so that they can take it to court and successfully
>> render it moot.
>>
>> At one point he's talking about $50,000 for a snapshot, then next
>> he's saying $50,000 per copyright holder, and how that would end
>> up being millions. A new story with almost every message, and
>> coming from several addresses, at one point from drdos.com, so I
>> went over to see if he was actually listed there but couldn't find
>> a reference. Ditto for the *panogas address. And I haven't looked
>> at comcast as that is an ISP with several million addresses IIRC.
>>
>> This old (70, and more user than coder now) fart associate member
>> of the FSF is more and more convinced he's a troll, out only to
>> contaminate the GPL and a few million to do that is just chicken
>> feed to his backers. And make no mistake, the sucessfull
>> contamination of the GPL could be worth many billions of dollars
>> to M$ et all. Thats the most obvious 'SWAG' candidate as the real
>> source of all this largess.
>>
>> My $0.02: Deal with the likes of him at the peril of the GPL.
>>
>> Here's another question that needs answered too, why the hell
>> isn't Linus in the To: or Cc: list? (He is now!) After all, his
>> approval would be the first thing you would need, isn't it Jeff?
>> Again, one more clue that this looks like the fox, trying to sneak
>> in under the henhouse radar.
>
>A bit of a historical note is in order. Jeff used to work for
> Novell... And had more than a small dispute with them over some
> linux code he did that allowed linux to, as I recall, do things
> with netware 4.x. Novell took exception as at the time the only
> other code that did it was closed source distributed through
> Caldera.

I see, so there is a personal axe to grind here also. I wasn't aware
of that. That places this a lot closer to the trolling scenario (and
a waste of time and bandwidth) than a fox in the henhouse then. And
the troll certainly cannot write a check of sufficient magnitude to
be interesting. All in all, an enlightening thread now, thank you to
those that were there to record history. :-)

--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
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Copyright 2004 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.