Re: Copyright Misuse Doctrine in Apple v. Psystar

[Ben Pfaff]

"amicus_curious" <ACDC@sti.net> writes:

> "Ben Pfaff" <blp@cs.stanford.edu> wrote in message
> 87iqn153fs.fsf@blp.benpfaff.org">news:87iqn153fs.fsf@blp.benpfaff.org...
>> "amicus_curious" <ACDC@sti.net> writes:
>>
>>> "Ben Pfaff" <blp@cs.stanford.edu> wrote in message
>>> 87myce5s72.fsf@blp.benpfaff.org">news:87myce5s72.fsf@blp.benpfaff.org...
>>>> "amicus_curious" <ACDC@sti.net> writes:
>>>>
>>>>> No one takes apart complex applications in order to change
>>>>> them, there is no value in having all those restrictions as
>>>>> posed by the GPL.
>>>>
>>>> What a bizarre, incorrect claim!  I spend a lot of time taking
>>>> apart complex applications in order to change them.  The Linux
>>>> kernel is one example of a complex application that I spend a lot
>>>> of time hacking.
>>>> -- 
>>> Perhaps you do, but the other 10,000 people nearest you do not.
>>
>> The half-a-dozen people who sit nearest to me at my office can,
>> and sometimes do.
>>
>> My point is that your assertion that "no one" does these things
>> is egregiously ill-informed, and I think that I have made that
>> point.
>>
> Would you believe "next to no one" then?  If Actiontec were to sell a
> million routers to Verizon and Verizon shipped them to a million of
> their customers, how many would ever be interested in the source?  My
> belief is that number is either zero or close to it.

Anyone who wanted to enhance the features of the router would
want the source.  I don't know how many people that is.  It could
be hundreds, it could be zero.  The important feature of the GPL
is that it gives everyone the opportunity to get that source,
should they want it.

>>> Are you one of the kernel developers?  It is hard to interpret
>>> the Google information around your name.
>>
>> I doubt any of the kernel developers would recognize my name.
>> I've made a few small kernel contributions, but none recently.
>>
>> I've been doing a lot of Linux kernel work in at the office.
>> We haven't yet tried to contribute it upstream.  Perhaps later
>> this year.
>> -- 
> That is extremely unusual, you will have to admit, but, even so, where
> do your get your Linux source?  From Actiontec or some other company
> using Linux and complying with the GPL distribution requirements or
> directly from Linus' project site? 

Our product works on many versions of the Linux kernel, so we get
sources from many places.  That includes Linus's upstream
distribution, so that we can be compatible with upstream Linux
kernels, but we also get sources from Red Hat and Citrix, among
other places, to ensure that we are compatible with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux kernels and XenServer kernels, which are
companies "using Linux and complying with the GPl distribution
requirements".
-- 
Ben Pfaff 
http://benpfaff.org