GPL musings

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> My opinion:
> 
> A demand for the source code immediately is unreasonable.  Rudi's 
> time should be spent on the bug fixes for the next release.  Far more 
> people will benefit from that release than a release of source code.  
> If someone has to have source code "right now", let them go look for 
> another open source project.
> 
> 

I agree.

Now, I want to explore something.  I don't expect Rudi to read of 
respond to this and would prefer he read it when he feels like taking a 
break from coding.

What would the course of action be to hold someone accountable for
BIG GPL issue violations?  Here in the US, there are 2 ways you end up 
in front of a judge: 1) you break a law, the police figure it out and 
arrest you.  2) someone feels they have been wronged and sue you for 
damages.  Rudi has broken no laws, so he is safe in that regard.  I can 
see how he may have wronged someone.  Someone may have to do more work 
than they should because of something Rudi did, or should have done but 
didn't.

So assuming that person(s) wanted to pursue this, they have to come up 
with an amount.  I don't see much mental anguish or life long 
disabilities or other intangible things, just time.  (Not even sure 
about the time - I lost track of what exactly the problem was - doesn't 
really matter, I am more interested in theory than reality anyway.) 
Given that you can't sue for time, you somehow convert time into money, 
generally at some high hourly rate that is based on what you could have 
made if you weren't doing something else.  This you can take in front of 
a judge.  Of course you have to have some sort of support for your 
amount, which is an unfortunate part of this process.

I am pretty sure the person being sued can just send a check for the 
amount, and the issue is settled, no court appearance necessary.

So let's say this happened.  Rudi gets sued for $X.  I have a theory:  a 
collection would be started to take care of Rudi, and enough would be 
collected to cover it.  I know that I would chip in.  It is the least we 
can do to help Rudi out given what he has done for "us."

Carl Karsten


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