A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled +"The +GPL is not magic pixie dust" explain the importance of making sure +the GPL is enforced. +I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:
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+The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.+ +
+ +The first step is to choose a +copyleft license for your +code.
+ +The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license, +it must be enforced
+ +and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of +work
+ +is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do. +-- Bradley Kuhn, in +FaiF +episode +0x57
+ +As the Debian Website +used +to +imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to +the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful +software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or +software products. Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created +to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but +such licenses are not enough. With the ongoing adoption of Free +Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's +expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of +ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always. As Karen +and Bradley explained in FaiF +episode 0x57, +copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court +to protect it. The reality of today's world is that legal +representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming. With +gpl-violations.org in hiatus +until +some time in 2016, the Software +Freedom Conservancy (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender +of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations. +In March the SFC supported a +lawsuit +by Christoph Hellwig against VMware for refusing to +comply +with the GPL in relation to their use of parts of the Linux +kernel. Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and +conferences +blocked +or cancelled their talks. As a result they have decided to rely +less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of +individuals who support Free Software and copyleft. So the SFC has +launched +a campaign to create +a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by +supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free +Software.
+ +If you support Free Software, +like +what the SFC do, agree with their +compliance +principles, are happy about their +successes in 2015, +work on a project that is an SFC +member and or +just want to stand up for copyleft, please join +Christopher +Allan Webber, +Carol +Smith, +Jono +Bacon, myself and +others in +becoming a +supporter. For the +next week your donation will be +matched +by an anonymous donor. Please also consider asking your employer to +match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC. Don't forget to +spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or +social media accounts.
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I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter +of Software Freedom Conservancy myself. Perhaps you should be a +supporter too?
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