Re: blatant GPL violation of ext2 and reiserfs filesystem drivers

[Jamie Lokier <jamie@shareable.org>]

> Yes.  You're not a lawyer.  Stop wasting everybody's time by trying to
> interpret a legal document.

Matthew, thanks for your abuse.  It was not necessary.

As a programmer, it is essential that I, like others, have a
reasonable understanding of the GPL.  It is not written only for
lawyers.  I did not nitpick something esoteric; I nitpicked something
which is important to real people who deal in GPL software which is
not available to the public.

> > That sentence is not clear to me.  Are you're saying that it was
> > possible to download the object code without source code, or that
> > _only_ the object code was available? 
> 
> Why don't you go and look instead of quibbling in the abstract?
> The binary is *currently* available, and no source code is.

Because this thread kept using the past tense to say what crossmeta
_have_ done.  As it's still available, why mention 'third parties'?
They're irrelevant; the violation is quite straightforward.

> > No.  They must provide the 'written offer' to the person downloading
> > the binary, if they did not make available source code to that person.
> 
> Why are you bothering to nitpick Harald?

Because he wrote something that, _without context_, is a technical
mistake that people sometimes make when talking about the GPL.  Like
you, I consider it my duty to ensure the GPL is upheld, and in the
proper way.  I appreciate now that Harald understands it well and his
statement was a simplification; others, may not.  I've been writing
GPL software for 15 years; it's not a new thing to me.

Please understand that I didn't receive these messages through a
legal-experts list, where of course I would be far more cautious to
comment; I received them on a software development list.

> Do you not realise he understands the GPL better than you do, having
> agreed over 30 settlements against people violating it?  He's even
> got courts to grant injunctions!

That's correct.  I did not realise that.  That's great!  But I haven't
known Harald's name before; and also did not know this thread had
reached the point of someone actually handling the legal end.

-- Jamie (goodbye)