Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] GPL defense issues

[Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>]

On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 05:13:56PM -0400, Karen Sandler wrote:
> 
> Perhaps I am confused - are there recordings of kernel summit sessions?
> Is attendance recorded? I don't see how participating in a closed door
> discussion here by folks who want to do so is any different risk-wise
> than discussions happening behind other closed doors.

There are no recordings of kernel summits, but who the attendees of
the kernel summit is public knowledge, and there is generally
photographic evidence.  :-)

	     https://lwn.net/Articles/662699/

It's true that an unrecorded conversaion with 75+ of your best is
"safer" (and a hallway conversation with a handful of people is even
safer), but nothing is risk-free, and the risks can come in multiple
dimensions.  I encourage folks to talk to their corporate counsels for
legal, because nobody else can give you that legal advice.

One of the things which very much worries me is the open scope of the
proposal.  e.g., let's have "discussions".

If there was a concrete proposal to consider, it would be much easier
for people to evaluate whether or not (a) it would be considered safe
for them to be in the room, and (b) whether it would be safe for them
to participate in the discussion.

In the ideal world, said proposal would have already received signoffs
from a number of General Counsels from most of our employers, and we
would be looking for the community assent to that proposal before we
went ahead with it.

If you have such a proposal, I would suggest bringing it to the
attention of Mike Dolan and Karen Cooperhaven who are lawyers from the
Linux Foundation (and since Linus and Greg works for the LF, they can
provide legal advice to them :-).  If it makes sense, they can help
with trying to circulate proposals to the various LF members' GC's.
There are also a number of of the TAB that are quite well informed in
this area, if you are less comfortable talking to lawyers right off
the bat.

Cheers,

						- Ted

P.S.  It would be a lot easier for both the progam committee and your
lawyers to evaluate whether or not it would make sense for invidual
engineers to attend such a session is if there was concrete proposal
on the table, not only because the risks are much easier to evaluate,
but the upside benefits of such a session are also much easier to
consider.  It also significantly improves the chances of concrete,
positive results afterwards!