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An Anonymous Coward writes:

(*1) https://lwn.net/Articles/723169/ [lwn.net]
(*2) https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/software/general-linux-open-source/948623-grsecurity-kernel-patches-will-no-longer-be-free-to-the-public?page=1 [phoronix.com]
(*3) https://www.embedded-linux.de/18-news/886-grsecurity-nicht-mehr-kostenlos-verfuegbar [embedded-linux.de]
(*4) https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/26/grsecurity_linux_kernel_freeloaders/ [theregister.co.uk]

GRSecurity removes public testing patch - goes full commercial.

(*5) http://www.openwall.com/lists/kernel-hardening/2017/06/04/24 [openwall.com]

>"Don't worry about it, there's nothing for a "grateful" user like yourself
>to download anymore. Boy, if I had more "grateful" users like yourself
>obsessed with harrassing us on Twitter, Reddit, and IRC so that they
>can go around and paint themselves as some kind of victim, I wouldn't
>know what to do with myself.
>
>-Brad"

Brad Spengler prevents a private purchaser from redistributing the sourcecode via contract clauses between him and they: thus willfully frustrating the purpose of the license HE was granted by the linux kernel rightsholders. This is another reason a court may find him in violation of the license grant of the GPL. As we discussed previously. (See: ****)

Also Brad Spengler threatens others with lawsuit in a nearly transparent attempt to get them to stop porting over the work:

>" This stops *now* or I'm sending lawyers after you and

(*6) http://www.openwall.com/lists/kernel-hardening/2017/06/03/14 [openwall.com]

>Guys, this is your *last warning*. This stops *now* or I'm sending lawyers
>after you and the companies paying you to plagiarize our work and violate
>our *registered* copyright (which for the record entitles us to punitive
>damages which now are very easily provable). It's time to get serious
>about attribution -- what you are doing is completely unacceptable. I'm
>already in contact with lawyers to prepare for the next time this happens.
>If any of this plagiarized and misattributed code actually made it into
>the Linux kernel, you'd all be in a world of pain.

Here Brad Spengler threatens a copyright infringement lawsuit regarding his non-original wholly-derivative work.
(An original work stands alone). This while he threatens those paying customers who might redistribute the work (see: **** below).

Note: Copyright licenses (like any license to use the property of another (copyright is freely alienable in the same way real property is)) are freely revocable unless barred by estoppel. The GPL v2 lacks a no-revocation clause thus estoppel would be more difficult to argue (additonally none of the "agreeing parties" have ever met each other).

Note2: GrSecurity is a derivative work of the linux kernel, it is non-seperable: it wholly relies on the linux kernel source code to work.
Courts in both the US and Germany have reaffirmed that if a work based on another work cannot stand alone it is clearly a derivative work.
(See the Anime Subtitles case from a few years ago) (See page 6 of the phoronix discussion at *2 for a review)

Note3:The linux kernel is not under joint copyright, it is simply a collection of derivative work upon derivative work.

A simple solution is for one or many of the rightsholders to the code GRSecurity is derived from/ modifies to rescind Brad Spengler's license to use or modify their code.

Additionally copyright violation claims can be filed as Brad Spengler has reportedly attempted to frustrate the purpose of the agreement that allows him to modify the linux kernel in the first place; placing additional restrictions to prevent redistribution of the sourcecode (a court would not be fooled by such a scheme).

(Addionally there were third parties who contributed to the GRSecurity code base when it was publically distributed.)

Other snippets from (*5) include Mr Spengler's unhappiness with the publication of his scheme and RMS's opinion of it:
>... It has been nearly 4 months now and despite repeated follow-ups, I still
>haven't received anything back more than an automated reply. Likewise
>regarding some supposed claims by RMS which were published last year by
>internet troll mikeeusa -- I have been trying since June 3rd of last
>year to get any response from him, but have been unable to. So when you ...

RMS' opinion can be seen here:
(*7) https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/06/msg00020.html [debian.org]

>Re: GRsecurity is preventing others from employing their rights under version 2 the GPL to redistribute source code
>Richard Stallman (May 31 2016 10:27 PM)
>
>[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider ]]]
>[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies, ]]]
>[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]
>
>If I understand right, this is a matter of GPL 2 on the Linux patches.
>Is that right? If so, I think GRsecurity is violating the GPL on
>Linux.
>
>--
>Dr Richard Stallman
>President, Free Software Foundation (gnu.org, fsf.org)
>Internet Hall-of-Famer (internethalloffame.org)
>Skype: No way! See stallman.org/skype.html.

(****)
GRsecurity is preventing others from employing their rights under version 2 the GPL to redistribute
(by threatening them with a non-renewal of a contract to recive this patch to the linux kernel.)
(GRsecurity is a derivative work of the linux kernel (it is a patch))

People who have dealt with them have attested to this fact:
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/4grdtb/censorship_linux_developer_steals_page_from_ [reddit.com]
andi
"You will also lose the access to the patches in the form of grsec not renewing the contract.
Also they've asked us (a Russian hosting company) for $17000+ a year for access their stable
patches. $17k is quite a lot for us. A question about negotiating a lower price was completely
ignored. Twice." -- fbt2lurker

And it is suggested to be the case here aswell:
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/4gxdlh/after_15_years_of_research_grsecuritys_rap_is_here [reddit.com]
"Do you work for some company that pays for Grsecurity? If so then would you kindly excersise the
rights given to you by GPL and send me a tarball of all the latest patches and releases?" --
lolidaisuki
"sadly (for this case) no, i work in a human rights organization where we get the patches by a
friendly and richer 3rd party of the same field. we made the compromise to that 3rd party to not
distribute the patches outside and as we deal with some critical situations i cannot afford to
compromise that even for the sake of gpl :/
the "dumber" version for unstable patches will make a big problem for several projects, i would
keep an eye on them. this situation cannot be hold for a long time" -- disturbio

Original Submission