翠星石 on Nostr: >many big companies just ignore the gpl and get away with that Please be more ...
>many big companies just ignore the gpl and get away with that
Please be more specific - which big companies and which versions - there is not merely one version - there is the GPLv1, GPLv2, GPLv3 and there are also related licenses in the same family known as the LGPLv{1,2,2.1,3} and AGPLv3.
No big company like microsoft, google, amazon or apple dares to infringe any of the FSF's copyrights, as they know that the FSF won't hesitate to sue if required and in this case the odds are stacked against them despite their vast funds.
microsoft has accidentally infringed the license of software under the GPLv2 a few times, but they've always come up with the source code under a compatible license immediately as soon as they were notified.
There are a lot of companies that infringe the copyright of the kernel, Linux, which is under the GPLv2-only, but that only occurs as most copyright holders of Linux do not enforce their license.
The solution to this problem is more license enforcement, using all legal avenues available - after all, even Chinese companies would suddenly no longer be able to ignore the GPLv2 if ¼ of every single one of their products containing BusyBox/Linux being imported into the USA or other countries end up being seized (in the USA and some other countries, a copyright holder can advise customs which devices being imported infringes their copyrights - for big shipments they'll probably end up seizing the lot, although for small ones the success rate is ¼ - which is a surprising case where laws intended to make shipping in 3rd party components for repairs difficult or impossible can be used to ensure freedom instead).
>and its fine
No, it is not fine that the users freedoms are being trampled.
Please be more specific - which big companies and which versions - there is not merely one version - there is the GPLv1, GPLv2, GPLv3 and there are also related licenses in the same family known as the LGPLv{1,2,2.1,3} and AGPLv3.
No big company like microsoft, google, amazon or apple dares to infringe any of the FSF's copyrights, as they know that the FSF won't hesitate to sue if required and in this case the odds are stacked against them despite their vast funds.
microsoft has accidentally infringed the license of software under the GPLv2 a few times, but they've always come up with the source code under a compatible license immediately as soon as they were notified.
There are a lot of companies that infringe the copyright of the kernel, Linux, which is under the GPLv2-only, but that only occurs as most copyright holders of Linux do not enforce their license.
The solution to this problem is more license enforcement, using all legal avenues available - after all, even Chinese companies would suddenly no longer be able to ignore the GPLv2 if ¼ of every single one of their products containing BusyBox/Linux being imported into the USA or other countries end up being seized (in the USA and some other countries, a copyright holder can advise customs which devices being imported infringes their copyrights - for big shipments they'll probably end up seizing the lot, although for small ones the success rate is ¼ - which is a surprising case where laws intended to make shipping in 3rd party components for repairs difficult or impossible can be used to ensure freedom instead).
>and its fine
No, it is not fine that the users freedoms are being trampled.