[ale] Linspire

[Bob Toxen]

On Tue, Mar 21, 2006 at 07:49:15PM -0500, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> I picked up PowerSpec machine from Microcenter today to wipe and install
> something other than Linspire. But I thought I'd look at it before I
> plopped in my boot disk.
> 
> The EULA from Linspire has do not modify and redistribute phrasing in it
> in direct violation of the GPL that 99.99% of Linspire is based on.
Linspire is doing the same thing that Red Hat has done.  Both are
very likely legally unenforceable.  (One cannot impose conditions on
text that someone else holds the copyright to.  The only possible
avenue for a suit would be claiming that their combination is a
proprietary Trade Secret even though the GPL makes clear the copyright
owner.)

Violating either Linspire's or Red Hat's claims will very likely not
result in either company winning a lawsuit.  However, I don't have
the budget to fight either but neither are they likely to sue.

> -- 
> James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
> CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
> 770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com

Bob Toxen
bob at verysecurelinux.com               [Please use for email to me]
http://www.verysecurelinux.com        [Network&Linux/Unix security consulting]
http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com [My book:"Real World Linux Security 2/e"]
Quality Linux & UNIX security and SysAdmin & software consulting since 1990.

"Microsoft: Unsafe at any clock speed!"
   -- Bob Toxen 10/03/2002