The FSF, Linux's Hit Men

PrimeNumber writes "Forbes has this story about the Free Software Foundation and its quest for Cisco and Broadcom to release the source of GPL'ed linux source used in routers. Forewarning: The open source community is not portrayed in positive light so you might want to skip reading this. However it did help me gain insight into software from a PHB and suit perspective."

Re:Of course!

[AllUsernamesAreGone]

Definately not! That is a right reserved for multinationals! God forbid that a bunch of unwashed hackers and their legal thugs could threaten the Good and Honest Coporations working to make the world a better place!

</sarcasm>

Ahem...

[ActiveSX]

Such a pity, comrade.

(-1, Troll)

Re:Of course!

[missing000]

Of course they do. It's for the greater good right?

I love being called a commie before breakfast!

Killer penguins

[AtariAmarok]

Linux hitmen? The image comes to mind of The Penguin's army of radio-controlled penguins in "Batman 2".

FSF, I renounce thee

[pantsmonkey]

After reading the Forbes article, I'm now totally disillusioned with the whole free software movement. What kind of sick organization would have the nerve to enforce a legally binding contract that another party entered into willingly. My God, one or more of the F's in FSF must stand for facist. If I were a Microsoft spin doctor, I'd use this opportunity to strike a blow to free software by offering my company as an alternative for those out there who shun companies that use legal trickery for the purpose of world domination.

Re:Worried About Big Brother?

[Zocalo]

Holy tracking numbers "devnullkac" [SlashdotID=223246]! It looks like Slashdot is assigning you a number as well; who knows what invasions of privacy they are using it for!

Or maybe it just has something to do with it being easier to cross-reference records stored in a database with a unique key, huh? ;)

Re:Great quote:

[Znork]

"But the Free Software Foundation doesn't want royalties -- it wants you to burn down your house, or at the very least share it with cloners."

That line is rather funny. He seems to have missed the point that, in fact, it's NOT Linksys's house. Linksys only built the outhouse, and the FSF wants Linksys to share the outhouse in exchange for Linksys being allowed to use the mansion. Not to mention that Linksys remains entirely free to take their outhouse and remove it from the FSF property, as long as they quit using the mansion and build their own mansion.

The Biggest Hypocricy

[rudy_wayne]

From the article: "In fact, the Free Software Foundation runs a lot of these "enforcement actions." There are 30 to 40 going on right now, and there were 50 last year, Kuhn says. There have been hundreds since 1991, when the current version of the GPL was published, he says. Tracking down bad guys has become such a big operation that the Free Software Foundation has created a so-called Compliance Lab to snoop out violators and bust them.

Who pays for this? The 12-employee Free Software Foundation has limited resources. So it seeks donations. And sometimes it collects money from companies it has busted. "

Gee, sounds just like the BSA, doesn't it? Except that the BSA extorts -- uh -- I mean collects -- hundreds of millions of dollars from companies that are guilty of various software licensing violations. Funny that the FSF is portrayed as evil and communistic for doing the same exact thing as the BSA.

BSA = Good
FSF = Bad

What a moron.

Not portraying OSS badly

[jjjefff]

They're just telling you what risks are involved with using GPL'd software. And, they've got a point. The whole thing is a little socialist, and enforcement actions a little draconian.

Just out of curiosity, why don't more people release their code under the BSD license?