283
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by petsoi@discuss.tchncs.de to c/linux@lemmy.ml
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Markaos@lemmy.one 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

That depends a lot on how the license gets interpreted and how license violations are handled by the local law. The argument for why the end user cannot do anything about GPL violation is that the violated contract is between upstream and the "bad" developer - the upstream project gave the bad developer access to their source code under the condition that the license stays the same. You as the end user only get exposed to the bad developer's license, so you can't do anything. It's the upstream who must force them to extend a proper license to you.

However there was also a case recently where the FSF argued that this interpretation / handling of the situation is against the spirit of GPL and I think they won, so... Yeah, it's just unclear. Which is normal for legal texts (IMHO intentionally, but I'm not here to rag on lawyers, so I'll leave it at that).

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago

Any details on that case you remember? Sounds fascinating.

this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2024
283 points (99.3% liked)

Linux

48335 readers
405 users here now

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS