On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 5:15 PM, Luke -Jr [email protected] wrote:
Torvalds is not the only copyright holder, and could do nothing to grant nVidia permission beyond the GPL 2 at this point. I see no reason his testimony would be needed in court. Did he appear for the D-link lawsuit in which the GPL was upheld? From reading the proceedings, it seems to me to have been specifically copyright on the Linux kernel that was addressed.
I'm not a lawyer, I just watch a lot of Law & Order. Bear that in mind.
I'd imagine that the first person that nVidia would call to their defense in a civil trial would be Linus Torvalds, followed immediately by Richard Stallman. I'd imagine that a sane judge would weigh their opinions far above anyone else you could mention in regards to this issue.
D-link was a TOTALLY separate issue. It was a flagrant violation, and there were no supporters among the Linux copyright holders for what they did (or if there were, they were nutjobs and can safely be ignored). There was no controversy about whether or not the copyright holders felt that there was infringement. In fact, the suit was brought up on behalf of them (as it must be, given that it's a civil matter).
Please use more relevant examples.
Jeffrey.