How not to handle a licensing violation

Posted Apr 12, 2007 8:58 UTC (Thu) by dark (guest, #8483)
In reply to: How not to handle a licensing violation by rickmoen
Parent article: How not to handle a licensing violation

Hmm. In the flamewar archive there is a link to a commit that replaces
original bcw code with code from bcm43xx, apparently to fix a bug. That
doesn't fit with your speculation (1) at all.

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How not to handle a licensing violation

Posted Apr 12, 2007 16:04 UTC (Thu) by rickmoen (subscriber, #6943) [Link] (1 responses)

"dark" wrote:

In the flamewar archive there is a link to a commit that replaces original bcw code with code from bcm43xx, apparently to fix a bug. That doesn't fit with your speculation (1) at all.

Actually, I can see that, too: It would require only that use borrowed code for that purpose and intend to fully rewrite it before commit, but then by commit time have forgotten that necessity. Negligent? Of course. So is the scenario Nathan Myers described. Figuring out what did happen with Marcus is an interesting exercise, and the smart money might bet on Nathan's scenario rather than mine -- but I'd argue that it's at least equally useful to visualise all the various plausible ways such things could happen. As "ajross" says, if you anticipate the potential for screwups, there are meaures you can take to make them less likely.

Rick Moen
rick@linuxmafia.com

How not to handle a licensing violation

Posted Apr 12, 2007 18:11 UTC (Thu) by cventers (guest, #31465) [Link]

You know... the truth is that I don't really know what Marcus was
thinking (if at all) when checking GPL code into the OpenBSD repository.
But this is a great time to point out that it is human nature to give
more 'rope' in allowances for what /might/ have happened if you look
favorably on the party in question. It is here that I think Theo did the
biggest disservice -- to his own developer Marcus. By reacting as he did,
he put everyone on edge and made it that much more difficult to accept
that it was a simple 'mistake'.