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

[Jeremy Allison <jra@samba.org>]

On Sat, Aug 27, 2016 at 07:43:29PM -0600, James Bottomley wrote:
> 
> Heh, well, if I called bullshit, I'd lose my reputation for politeness
> (although perhaps Linus would finally come to respect me).  Let me just
> point at that your 0.57% or however you define it, is why no
> corporation currently trusts you or wants to talk to you unless forced
> by their lawyers.  Without mutual trust, there's no basis for
> negotiation, so all your attempts at compliance are overshadowed by
> this end game.

In an discussion, when you accuse your oponent of flat-out lying
and being untrustworthy there's no place left to go.

Let's not do that. I don't think it's helpful.

However, "no corporation currently trusts you or wants to talk to
you unless forced by their lawyers" is inaccurate (note I don't
think you're lying, just mistaken here).

My employer is a large funder of Conservancy (check their funding
spreadsheet for details), and I promise you we talk without legal
requests to do so (even though Karen managed to crash the badging
system here last time she visited :-).

> Your inability to recognise that there are other methods beyond holding
> out this 0.57% club, and that a lot of other people have achieved
> significant compliance and even community contributions using them, is
> why your statements generate such a lot of strong reactions.  It
> reminds me a lot of the 70s and 80s "Mr President, under what
> conditions would you be willing to press the nuclear button?" which
> isn't really a world I want to go back to.

That isn't the question that's being asked though. The question
that is being asked is "should there be a nuclear button *at all* ?".

Your opinion on that is clear and I understand why you hold it.
There are many other developers who hold the same opinion, but
lots of them work on FreeBSD not Linux.

Respectfully, I don't agree with you. Greg and Ted seem to agree
with you, Linus (like me) seems to imagine there can be a case for
that shiny red button.

To be honest I never would have put you down as a CND supporter
(but I suppose all those years you spent in a tent at Greenham
Common should have given me a hint :-).