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Grsecurity stops issuing public patches, citing trademark abuse

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Analysis (Score: -1, Spam)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-09-08 16:53 (#KT9D)

Spengler announced he is closing grsecurity, he will only distribute to those who pay him 200 dollars per month

grsecurity is a derivative work of the linux kernel, which has 10000s of rights holders

Spengler only has permission to modify the linux kernel at the grace of those rights holders
either: through bare license (property law), or contract (contract law)

licenses can be revoked at any time by the rights holder, provided he is not estopped from doing so
thus a plaintiff, if linux is merely licensed (if the GPL and agreement is not a contract), can simply bar him and then seek statutory damages if he continues to create derivative works (100k+ per violation)

if the GPL and the agreement which allows Spengler to modify the copyrighted work is a contract, then we proceede under contract law

here first we look to if the document is fully integrated or not, the linux documentation, and the GPL makes no mention of this

but since the linux kernel is under GPL, it's ok to distribute copies of his work for a fee, as long as the source code is published isn't it?

He is not publishing the source code.

He is keeping it closed, except to people who pay 200 a month

since there is no integration clause we can likely bring in extrisic evidence to show that the rights holders never intended that someone may close a derivative work as such

when a contract is not fully integrated, evidence to the intentions of the parties, their state of mind, usage in trade of terms, etc can be brought in, even if they contradict the written terms of the agreement.

Now, if the GPL is neither a license, and if it also does not satisfy the elements of a contract (perhaps there is no meeting of the minds, or more likely one party has not given anything up), then Spengler is simply violating copyright

Re: Analysis (Score: 2, Informative)

by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-09-08 17:40 (#KTE5)

Your use of the ENTER key instead of a PERIOD just makes a huge mess. I've never been a big fan of the /. lameness filter, but it does stop lots of such bad behavior.
Spengler announced he is closing grsecurity
No he isn't doing that at all. The summary states this fact quite clearly.
it's ok to distribute copies of his work for a fee, as long as the source code is published isn't it? He is not publishing the source code. He is keeping it closed, except to people who pay
The GPLv2 has NEVER required source code be "published". It only requires that any recipient of "object code" also be able to receive the source code, and you "may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients" meaning they could redistribute it further.

This is in the FAQ for anyone who spent a few seconds to look for it:
* http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html

"the GPL requires you to make the modified source code available to the program's users, under the GPL."

"The GPL gives him permission to make and redistribute copies of the program if and when he chooses to do so. He also has the right not to redistribute the program, when that is what he chooses."

"You can charge people a fee to get a copy from you. You can't require people to pay you when they get a copy from someone else."

etc. etc.
licenses can be revoked at any time by the rights holder
The GPL is not revocable:
* http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2006062204552163
the rights holders never intended that someone may close a derivative work
Your repeated assertions of bad faith are both incredibly lazy and utterly insane, as the GPLv2 explicitly allows modifications & derivatives, explicitly allows you to "charge a fee", and nowhere claims you must make your modified version PUBLICLY AVAILABLE. Stop pretending to be a lawyer who has any clue what he is talking about, when you're clearly unwilling to do the slightest work to investigate the validity of your own unsupported claims.

At least you managed to avoid blaming Debian or women for any of this...

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Time Reason Points Voter
2015-09-09 01:08 Informative +1 pete@pipedot.org

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