Question regarding GPL and membership requirements for a standards body

[Akiba]

Thanks for the responses. That's the issue in a nutshell. The restriction
placed on the license for using the spec looks like it's enough to block it
form being integrated into the Linux kernel. Also, it seems to imply that
the GPL would need an exception for the case that you're a commercial entity
that's not a member of the Alliance. 

Akiba

FreakLabs Open Source Zigbee Project

http://www.freaklabs.org

  _____  

From: Hardy, Allan [mailto:allan.hardy at lmco.com] 
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 10:00 PM
To: Akiba; legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: RE: Question regarding GPL and membership requirements for a
standards body

 

I agree, requirements for the membership, restrictions on type of use, those
are all imho violations of the spirit and letter of the GPL.

"Though shall not wrap other restrictions around this license"  - ok its not
in the terms exactly like that.

 

For even more folks opinions, try the debian-legal discussion, they deal
with this stuff all the time.  Ask them if they would consider the Alliances
terms to fit the open source definition/if they would include this in a
debian free category.

 

Allan

 

From: legal-bounces at lists.gpl-violations.org
[mailto:legal-bounces at lists.gpl-violations.org] On Behalf Of Akiba
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:46 PM
To: legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: Question regarding GPL and membership requirements for a standards
body

 

Hi. 

I'm running an open source project to implement the Zigbee Protocol stack.
The code is currently protected by the GPL, however there's been a challenge
to the validity of the license. The problem comes from the fact that the
Zigbee Alliance requires membership in order to use its spec for commercial
projects. Although my code is license free, it's claimed that the membership
requirement is a licensing fee. If it turns out that the code is
incompatible with the GPL, I will need to go mod-BSD. However I'd like to
get a professional opinion on the validity of the claim first. Can someone
offer some advice?

 

More details can be found on this blog post:

http://freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/Zigbee/Zigbee-Linux-and-the-GPL.html

 

Akiba

FreakLabs Open Source Zigbee Project

http://www.freaklabs.org

 

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