SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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
(Score: 2) by sjames on Monday February 17 2020, @06:18AM
Back in the '80s it was not even clear that copyright applied to software. Companies put copyright notices in just in case and as a deterrent to copying.
You're missing a fundamental point though. It's not GRsec CUSTOMERS who necessarily have a cause to sue, it'd the many authors of the Linux kernel. Any one of them might choose to sue at any time. Will the courts decide that a diff (source or binary) that depends on a copy of the original to produce a functional result is constructively distributing a derived work? Nobody can say for sure unless/until such a case is brought and winds it's way through the courts, but it is a distinct possibility.