Re: ndiswrapper and GPL-only symbols redux

[Adrian Bunk <bunk@kernel.org>]

On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 03:26:27PM -0500, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:43:27 EST, Lennart Sorensen said:
> > On Wed, Jan 30, 2008 at 08:45:38PM +0200, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > > http://www.jbb.de/judgment_dc_munich_gpl.pdf
> > > http://www.jbb.de/judgment_dc_frankfurt_gpl.pdf
> > 
> > Good point.  They seem to be the place that actually has enforced the
> > GPL.
> 
> An alternate reading is that it's the only place that has a legal system
> so whacked that a case actually went to trial rather than the offending
> party just going "Oh foo.. yeah, that *is* what it says, we better comply
> in one way or another"...
> 
> It all depends what sort of legal system you have/want - I saw a statistic
> for our local police department that said that 98% of all their cases last
> year ended in plea agreements before going to trial (although to be fair,
> that includes traffic violations where the driver just paid the fine before
> the trial date came up and similar minor cases).  If things actually go to
> trial all the time, things get even more bogged down than they already are...

If you go to http://www.gpl-violations.org you'll see that Harald has 
also successfully enforced his rights under the terms of the GPL as one 
of the copyright holders of the Linux kernel in many more cases without 
having to go to (German) courts.

There were people who were claiming the GPL was not enforcible at court, 
and there are many grey areas of the GPL left where people claim this 
and that - and only court decisions will bring clarifications.

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed