Re: Why is Nvidia given GPL'd code to use in closed source drivers?

Richard Stallman
2003-01-11T00:12:40Z

> There is no such thing as an open source community.

Poof! And millions of people disappear at the bidding of the
One True God, Richard Stallman.

These people exist and are part of our community. (I said that
before.) They have the right to their views, and the right to form a
movement to promote it. They have the right to call it the open
source movement. All that is simply the exercise of political
freedom.

What they do not have a right to do is rename our community after
their own movement as if they had built it. That is Orwellian
rewriting of history. People can honorably disagree with our views,
but they can't honorably deny our achievements.

Please remember that Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds and your
inclusion of "Linux" in "GNU/Linux" is covered by trademark law. Have
you cleared that use with Linus?

Linus announced years ago that people can use the term "Linux" any way
they wish as long as it does not close off the name space. Legally,
therefore, this is allowed. But there is still the issue of what is
right to do.

It would't be wrong to call the system just "GNU", since it's more GNU
than anything else, but it seems ungentlemanly to cite only GNU and
ask people to stop giving Linus a share of the credit. I'd rather
call it "GNU/Linux" and cite his contribution also.

However, if he asks us to stop citing Linux in this way, we will heed
his wishes.