14 DAY TRIAL // In a recent blog post entitled "GPL Fun," ex-Kubuntu release manager and leader Jonathan Riddell talks about a few recent cases of GPL license violations and the continuity of free software ecosystem.
He starts the article discussing a recent case of GPL violation where a Linux developer is suing VMWare, an American company that develops and distributes cloud and virtualization software, as well as services, for using Linux as part of one of their commercially distributed product.
Recently, Canonical has been involved in another case of GPL (GNU General Public License) violation, this time being accused by the Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) group, a non-profit organization that promotes FLOSS (Free, Libre and Open Source Software) projects, of distributing the ZFS (Z File System) file system illegally.
If you've been following our previous articles about Jonathan Riddell and Canonical, you probably know that he opposed Canonical's IP (Intellectual Property) policy several times last year, and even requested them in a public letter to moved it off the Ubuntu website. He even mocked Canonical with his own Intellectual Property policy.
Is Canonical illegally distributing Linux?
And it looks like ex-Kubuntu Release Manager Jonathan Riddell has taken this opportunity to share his opinion on the matter of Canonical illegally distributing Linux because "their previous Intellectual Property Policy claimed additional restrictions which do not exist, so they have lost the right to copy it under the GPL 2 license."
"My guess would be that they realized nobody much cared about that and reasoned they had nothing more to lose," continued Jonathan Riddell in his recent blog post, which is a recommended reading for those who want to stay up to date on latest developments in the subject areas mentioned above.
So what do you think? Is Canonical illegally distributing Linux?