Excellent article!

I noticed that in the URL you referenced,
http://kerneltrap.org/node/view/4118, a comment was made by Theo de Raadt that "One guy at Intel claims that Mandrake Linux has "signed" this contract. In the past I might have found that fascinating, **but increasingly I am not surprised because the corporate ways of Linux vendors are starting to override the Linux idealism.**"

I have begun to notice that too, and as a Linux user for the last seven years it is beginning to make me angry. Over that period of time I have purchased 22 boxed sets of various Linux distros and have always exercised my GPL rights to copy and distribute to friends in my efforts to increase Linux use. But, apparently, I can not do this any more. This was even the topic of a vigorous debate on a popular linux newsgroup last week.
Visit alt.os.linux.suse and read:
Subject: Re: Copying, license, registration
Subject: Re: SUSE Licensing question
Subject: Re: 'Free-ness' of suse(linux)!

How are Linux vendors overriding my Linux idealism? By attempting to bypass the GPL. Several Linux vendors are now including proprietary apps mixed in with their mostly GPL distros. Those apps come with licenses which restrict redistribution of the ISOs and/or CDs, and the distro vendors are now stating that their distros cannot be copied, except for a single personal backup copy (a direct quote from Novell's "MarkR"), nor can copies be redistributed.
The 'reason' is: in order to honor the restrictive proprietary licenses, which is no less than revoking the GPL, something the 6th and 7th clauses forbid.


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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/columns/281/29388#29388