Question regarding GPL and membership requirements for a standards body

[Akiba]

That's the analogy that started this whole issue. The spec's IP is analogous
to patented IP and the issue is whether this is in violation of the GPL.
Unfortunately, it looks like it is. 
And the assumption is correct with the project being non-profit. One of the
goals is to check the power balance between the semiconductor vendors who
are trying to lock people in to hardware through their proprietary stack's
software licenses.

Akiba
FreakLabs Open Source Zigbee Project
http://www.freaklabs.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Janez Pers [mailto:janez.pers at fe.uni-lj.si] 
Sent: Saturday, June 20, 2009 12:01 AM
To: Akiba
Cc: legal at lists.gpl-violations.org
Subject: Re: Question regarding GPL and membership requirements for a
standards body

Akiba wrote:
> 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.

I think the best analogy here are software patents. AFAIK, nothing 
prevents YOU from writing GPL code, that relies on patented
technology, but end user of the code may get into trouble by using
your code in commercial application - regardless of how well
he adheres to the GPL.

Same applies here: you are (I assume) not working for profit, and
therefore you are free to work on ZigBee. If, on the other hand
your GPLed code ends in someone's product, he will be in breach
of the ZigBee license, even if he does everything what GPL
demands from him. This way, your code is essentially non-free.

I don't know exactly how patents are handled in GPL V3 (and assume
they are not at all in V2) - if using patented technology is
considered a breach of GPL (since it may make code non-free),
then the use of ZigBee specs has the same effect.

And, standard disclaimers apply: I am not the layer and this is
purely my opinion, not advice.

Janez.