[sldev] Re: [Opensim-dev] Violating the GPL by looking (Re: Voice Module)

Jason Giglio gigstaggart at gmail.com
Wed Mar 19 21:49:52 PDT 2008


Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> On 2008-03-19, at 14:38, Paul Oppenheim (Poppy Linden) wrote:
>> I'm curious - how did the Linux binary compatibility layer get added 
>> to FreeBSD?
> 
> Linux is a bit of a special case.
> 
> A lot of it could be implemented based on documentation, without looking 
> at the Linux kernel.
> 
> But in addition Linus Torvalds has pretty consistently taken a position 

Linus Torvalds does not own the copyright on the kernel.  He owns... a 
small part of it.

He can't speak for every contributor, there's no contribution agreement. 
  Any one of hundreds of developers that have contributed to Linux that 
disagree with Linus could sue.

> So there's a history of people working on Linux and implementing what 
> could by the FSF interpretation be seen as "derived works" of Linux 
> without having to make them GPL.

Imagine that, people actually writing code instead of acting paranoid 
about long-shot lawsuits.

> Linden Labs has not taken the same position. In previous discussions 
> here I've seen what seems to me to be a reluctance to risk any kind of 
> "cut-out" becoming possible. I understand that position: Linden Labs is 
> not in the same kind of situation as Linux. But it does mean that this 
> is not a really good analogy.

It's not a good analogy because in the Linux situation there is way more 
risk.  Hundreds of contributors could file a suit alleging infringement 
on their contribution to Linux.

With Linden Lab, because of the contributors agreement, Linden Lab could 
defuse any lawsuit brought by a third party by simply saying it was OK 
with them that the sued party was doing whatever they were doing, and 
therefore it wouldn't be infringement.

-Jason


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