Post Syndicated from ris original http://lwn.net/Articles/694891/rss
The Software Freedom Conservancy is one of the few organizations involved
in GPL enforcement, and it has published
principles regarding enforcement practices that seek compliance and not
financial penalties. Bradley Kuhn and Karen Sandler urge
others doing GPL enforcement to follow principles set forth by the
SFC. “One impetus in drafting the Principles was our discovery of
ongoing enforcement efforts that did not fit with the GPL enforcement
community traditions and norms established for the last two
decades. Publishing the previously unwritten guidelines has quickly
separated the wheat from the chaff. Specifically, we remain aware of
multiple non-community-oriented GPL enforcement efforts, where none of
those engaged in these efforts have endorsed our principles nor pledged to
abide by them. These “GPL monetizers”, who trace their roots to nefarious
business models that seek to catch users in minor violations in order to
sell an alternative proprietary license, stand in stark contrast to the
work that Conservancy, FSF and gpl-violations.org have done for
years.” The actions of one individual prompted the netfilter
project to make a statement endorsing the principles, which we covered earlier this month.