Disclaimer: In light of recent events some might be tempted to do some of this. Don't. This is only an idea for what might be done in the future. In the past when a licensing issue has come up, someone like Bruce or ESR has stepped in as the "ambassador" to the offender. However, it seems that we need some kind of checklist to follow when these things occur, since we might one day have to go to court. Headache, inc. release a version of Linux based on Debian. However, they neglect to release some of it under the GPL. Whatever shall we do? In the past, Bruce would send mail saying "I am on the case" or something to that effect. However, what if Bruce fails? We (or SPI) own the copyrights to much of Debian. Whatever shall we do? Chew on this: 1) License problem is identified 2) Responsible person (Bruce, Project leader, SPI officer, whatever) contacts offender. At this point, two things could happen. A) Offender relents. If so, we cheer and make general merriment. However, (scary music) B) Offender does not relent and/or makes funny faces at us Of course we are horrified by the funny faces, but how do we defend our licensing? Perhaps we need a lawyer for this part. 3) Cease and desist letter is sent Perhaps we need a lawyer to compose something that could be modified quickly and sent out. A) Offender relents See above B) Offender does not relent 4) SPI (or copyright holder) should initiate legal procedings against offender. This is draconian, but we need to put teeth behind our licenses, not just the whining power of slashdot. Where it goes from here cannot be forseen. Of course, this is only hypothetical, and most vendors are on our side, but we should be prepared for the event that someone does violate our licenses and we need to test the GPL (or other license) in court. Regards, Andrew Andrew G. Feinberg agf@debian.org andrew@ultraviolet.org Pager: 1-888-950-5050 PIN 6093780 PGP: 0xDBE2B5E9 / 78 55 2B B4 A7 B2 96 FF 84 BA 4A 3F 23 82 DD 80
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