Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 16 2020, @02:22PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-way-out dept.

https://www.itwire.com/open-source/linux-kernel-patch-maker-says-court-case-was-only-way-out.html

The head of security firm Open Source Security, Brad Spengler, says he had little option but to file a lawsuit against open source advocate Bruce Perens, who alleged back in 2017 that security patches issued for the Linux kernel by OSS violated the licence under which the kernel is distributed.

The case ended last week with Perens coming out on the right side of things; after some back and forth, a court doubled down on its earlier decision that OSS must pay Perens' legal costs as awarded in June 2018.

The remainder of the article is an interview with Brad Spengler about the case and the issue.

iTWire contacted Spengler soon after the case ended, as he had promised to speak at length about the issue once all legal issues were done and dusted. Queries submitted by iTWire along with Spengler's answers in full are given below:

Previously:
Court Orders Payment of $259,900.50 to Bruce Perens' Attorneys


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Sunday February 16 2020, @05:44PM (2 children)

    by barbara hudson (6443) <barbara.Jane.hudson@icloud.com> on Sunday February 16 2020, @05:44PM (#958847) Journal
    That's part of it. The other part is "can the GOL force people not to waive their rights to source" which it probably can't. People agree to contracts that waive their non-statutory rights all the time. So a lawsuit against the practice of a contract that waived the right to source code would probably fail and result in a counter claim based on tortious interference [wikipedia.org].
    --
    SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @12:06PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @12:06PM (#959119)

    The copyright license terms of the linux kernel and of GCC prohibit spengler from proffering any additional terms, including those that ask or demand distributees to waive their rights. HE is not allowed to proffer such terms. Fucking moron. HE is violating the copyright of the linux kernel by putting forth those additional terms between him and the distributees of the derivative work.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @09:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 17 2020, @09:28PM (#959295)

      but the additional terms are not added to the license for the software. They are in a separate service contract, at least i'm guessing they didn't put their agreement in the same exact document as the GPL.