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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
byv(*_*)vvvv ( 233078 ) writes:
There is no legal pressure on any company that steals GPL code.
Here is the problem.
1) GPL software is not very profitable.
2) The GPL is only enforceable in civil court.
3) Those who use GPL software aren't the people violators sell to.
4) GPL software lacks civil and legal representation.
Who would feel threatened under these conditions?
To sue, one must prove damages. Record companies use the CD MSRP * copies made formula which is very effective. $0 times anything is zero. And the 2 developers who write code i
bypetrus4 ( 213815 ) writes:
There is no legal pressure on any company that steals GPL code.
The GPL does have teeth, but as Eben Moglen himself observed, that is not primarily due to the legal system.
GPL violation is primarily punishable not by law, but by the members of the cult themselves.
Violate the GPL, and be public about it, and whether you end up in court or not, you will be issued with death threats. You will be subjected to vigilantism and harassment of all kinds. You will likely be subjected to "hacktivism," involving the types of pranks that Anonymous have been known to engage in.
For GPL violators, the courts are no real threat. The real threat are the proverbial, "GNU generation;" the vast, militant horde of anarchic, Marxist, Eurotrash 14 year olds that Stallman has been able to sink his ideological claws into.
It isn't any lawyer you must fear. It's the nameless, faceless 15 year old Debian user from the Eastern bloc, who can reduce both your home and corporate LAN to smoking ruins, can steal your identity, can have your bank accounts drained or frozen, and can do so both at will and completely invisibly; striking hard, and then melting away back into the anonymous sea of humanity, untraceably.
Damn kids. They're all alike. ;)
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