TomTom fights Microsoft to protect GPL?

[Doug Mentohl]

'any company doing a patent cross license without covering its
downstream recipients, i.e. users, is a direct violation of [the GPL] ...'

'If Tom Tom or any other company cross licenses patents then by section
7 of GPLv2 (for the Linux kernel) they lose the rights to redistribute
the kernel at all ..'

'All of these ... back-door, secret cross-licensing agreements ... have
occurred without the knowledge of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
which originates the GPL2 license ..'

'if Microsoft loses because the Court rejects the concept of software
patents a'la Bilski, then Microsoft is royally screwed ...'

http://blogs.computerworld.com/tomtom_fights_microsoft_to_protect_gpl_extraextra

'I know you want me to explain what the recent Bilski decision [PDF]
means .. abstract ideas are not patentable' ...

http://www.groklaw.net/articlebasic.php?story=20081103134949355

[amicus_curious]

'If Tom Tom or any other company cross licenses patents then by section 7
of GPLv2 (for the Linux kernel) they lose the rights to redistribute the
kernel at all ..'

Who do you think would sue TomTom on this issue? It could not be busybox,
the FAT patents do not apply to their software and so they have no voice in
the matter. It seems to me it would have to be someone claiming to be the
copyright owner for Linux. Who is that?

[7]

Micoshaft Appil asstroturfing fraudster pounding the sock amicus_curious

Post by amicus_curious

'If Tom Tom or any other company cross licenses patents then by section 7
of GPLv2 (for the Linux kernel) they lose the rights to redistribute the
kernel at all ..'

Who do you think would sue TomTom on this issue? It could not be busybox,
the FAT patents do not apply to their software and so they have no voice in
the matter. It seems to me it would have to be someone claiming to be the
copyright owner for Linux. Who is that?

Doh! What kind of dumb fsck are you?

EACH AND EVERY BIT OF GPL'd SOFTWARE IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT BY THE
INDIVIDUALS WRITING THE SOFTWARE.

The copyright holder licenses their rights to others with the GPL.
If they choose to use the GPL to license out something they own
to you and you violated the GPL, then each author who holds copyright can
sue you separately.

So if you want to violate GPL license of Linux, then there is endless
queue of software developers that will rise to sue you.