Miscellaneous > The Lounge
Understanding the GPL
Kintaro:
So if Microsoft would get the Linux Kernel and just "switch" it to the M$ EULA, that would be okay?
Orethrius:
--- Quote from: kintaro ---So if Microsoft would get the Linux Kernel and just "switch" it to the M$ EULA, that would be okay?
--- End quote ---
Ah, but again you're assuming retroactive application. Were they to do that, I'd petition my congressman to place open bounties on the BSA. I'd likely get the requisite number of signatures, too, if I phrased the byline as "Preventative Measures to Stem the Spread of a Toxilogically Biohazardous Viral Body" or something on that order. No, IF Microsoft were to get the Linux kernel and "switch" it to their End User Legal Annulment, and actually NOT be total bastards by violating the original licence in favour of their new one, progress would continue to be made on the prior edition of the kernel. This is the benefit of a "forked" model. However this is all merely rhetoric, as letting Microsoft play with the Linux kernel is like letting a five-year-old play with nuclear weaponry. It's really cool for the half a second before they screw it up so badly that it kills them and vaporises the entire block. ;)
piratePenguin:
Microsoft can't relicence Linux unless they own the copyright over it.
They'd have to buy off a fuck load of developers.
Jenda:
They can't relicense the kernel, because it is protected by the GPL! The GPL strictly forbids change of licence on derivative works!
toadlife:
--- Quote from: worker201 ---Read this essay by demigod ESR first:
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/
It will shed new light on some of those deeper issues.
--- End quote ---
The Cathedral and the Bazaar isn't really about the GPL, it's about the Open Source process and how it can be much more powerfull than the closed source process. There is more to Open Source than the GPL license. In fact many in the Open Source software coomunity like to point out that 'the "open source" software community and the "free software" community are very different things. But, yeah TCATB it is good reading for someone new to the whole open source idea.
If you're going to point him to one ESR rant, you might as well point him too one of ESR's more current rants. :)
ESR Interview - We don't need the GPL any more.
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