[U-Boot] Possible GPL violation

[Wolfgang Denk]

Dear Charles Manning,

In message <CAE21AQpUuFOAfwRk=7rsQHL5p_EVhiNQUAT4QKY=px0SvxOb7A at mail.gmail.com> you wrote:
>
> >> 1) If you buy a product containing GPL code, but the company does not
> >> supply the code, then - in general - you cannot force the company to
> >> supply you with code. You need to get the collaboration of an
> >> infringed copyright holder to force the issue.
> >
> > Just for the record: I'm always willing to help out as such.
> >
> 
> One of the problems with pursuing these actions is that it can be
> somewhat hard to prove that you have contributed materially to claim
> copyright over some code.

I think I should be in a pretty good position to prove that.
This is why I always offer help in such situations.

> In much of open source though, there have been many major contributors
> and even more minor contributors and it can be hard to claim to be a
> legitimate copyright holder. In theory, I guess you could claim
> copyright on a three line patch, but the harsh reality of lawyer land
> would probably want to see something far more substantial.

This is one of the reasons why the FSF asks for / recommends copyright
assignments, see for example [1].

[1] http://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-assign.html

Best regards,

Wolfgang Denk

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