Re: Tom Tom and Microsofts Linux patent lock-down ..

[Hyman Rosen]

amicus_curious wrote:
> The purpose of the open source license is to encourage more people
> to use Linux

Linux is not distributed under "the open source license". It is
distributed under GPLv2. The purpose of GPLv2 is not to encourage
more people to use Linux, it is to make sure that people who get
the software are able to run, read, modify, and share the software
they receive. You appear to have the GPL mixed up with some other
license.

You may not like or agree with the goals of the GPL, but you may
not attribute false goals to it and then claim that actions taken
to promote the true goals are a problem because they hinder the
false ones.

> Well the court filings are a better source.  Apparently the SFLC 
> received nothing from Verizon and there was nothing in any settlement 
> for the courts to monitor as per the usual practice.

    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_(litigation)>
    In other situations (as where the claims have been satisfied by
    the payment of a certain sum of money) the plaintiff and defendant
    can simply file a notice that the case has been dismissed.

You cannot know, not being a party, whether the SFLC received anything
from Verizon. The only thing we can see from the outside is that for
each case brought by the SFLC, the defendants have made GPLed sources
properly available.

> The SFLC tries to save face, but they just look silly to the world.

The SFLC is accomplishing exactly what their clients want, which is
enforcement of the GPL. They do not look silly, they look successful.