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Bradley Kuhn (bkuhn) - 9 years ago 2015-03-11 20:15:01
bkuhn@ebb.org
VMware Lawsuit FAQ entry: Why doesn't FSF enforce?

This FAQ and its answer explain why the FSF can't take care of
enforcement for this particular matter.
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www/conservancy/static/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html
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@@ -139,24 +139,41 @@
 
            Software Foundation</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="https://samba.org/samba/news/announcements/2015-03-06_vmware_lawsuit.html">The
 
            Samba Team</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="https://plus.google.com/104877287288155269055/posts/cHgyreA76yY">Dave Airlie, Linux Developer</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/573530001758294016">Matthew Garrett, Linux Developer</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/#glikely">Grant Likely, Linux Kernel Engineer</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/635624/">Luis R. Rodriguez (aka mcgrof), Linux Developer</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/635855/">Wolfram Sang, Linux Developer</a></li>
 
        <li><a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/635617/">Rik van Riel, Linux Developer</a></li>
 
    </ul>
 
  </dd>
 

	
 
<dt>I
 
see <a href="https://fsf.org/news/conservancy-and-christoph-hellwig-gpl-enforcement-lawsuit">FSF's
 
statement of support</a>, but why
 
isn't <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/compliance">FSF enforcing</a> in
 
this case?</dt>
 

	
 
<dd>While FSF are the authors and license steward of the GNU GPL, it's up to
 
the copyright holder to enforce GPL.  VMware created an operating system by
 
combining parts of the kernel named Linux with their own proprietary code,
 
and then added BusyBox to provide the userspace operating system components.
 
As such, ESXi is not
 
a <a href="https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.html">traditional GNU/Linux
 
system</a>.  FSF has many copyrights of its own, but these are almost
 
exclusively on various parts of the GNU system, not on the kernel, Linux.  As
 
such, FSF probably does not have copyright interests available to directly
 
enforce the GPL regarding the primary issue in this case.</dd>
 

	
 
  <dt><em>I</em> care about copyleft and the GPL.  How can I help?</dt>
 

	
 
  <dd>Conservancy needs <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">your immediate financial
 
  support to proceed with this litigation</a>.  Litigation costs are
 
  unpredictable, and this lawsuit may take years to resolve.  Conservancy is
 
  prepared to fund this case through its conclusion, but we can only do so
 
  with <a href="/supporter/"><em>your</em> support</a>.  If you are an
 
  individual who supports copyleft and wants to see it defended, please
 
  donate now.  And, if you make a public statement of support, please email the
 
  URL
 
  to <a href="mailto:info@sfconservancy.org">&lt;info@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>,
 
  as we'd like to include representative selection of supportive statements above.</dd>
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