Monday, May 15, 2006

The GPL and Kororaa

The Kororaa live CD distro has apparently been brought to a grinding halt. The story itself is a bit confusing, but what I find interesting is all the angst on display in the comments on the linked page. Gee, some folks find it bizarre that you might have to depend on the law to sustain the free software community - what would it do without the legal requirements of the free software licenses? And proprietary software vendors are so accomodating aren't they?

Thursday, May 11, 2006

GPL enforcement

A very interesting article on enforcing the GPL. In our book, one of the issues considered is the question of whether free software licensing schemes are enforceable - it would be a weakness if the interests of the free software community were left at the mercy of a non-enforceable constitution. The article points out that GPL enforcement is tough, but also makes the interesting point that most violations seem to have been inadvertent. And that GPLV3 might make enforcement more difficult. Read the piece; the issue is crucial to the long-term sustenance of the free software community.