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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I agree, requirements for the membership, restrictions on type
of use, those are all imho violations of the spirit and letter of the GPL.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>“Though shall not wrap other restrictions around this license”
- ok its not in the terms exactly like that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Allan<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><b><span
style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
legal-bounces@lists.gpl-violations.org
[mailto:legal-bounces@lists.gpl-violations.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Akiba<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, June 18, 2009 10:46 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> legal@lists.gpl-violations.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> Question regarding GPL and membership requirements for a
standards body<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=left style='text-align:left'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Hi. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>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?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>More details can be found on this blog post:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><a
href="http://freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/Zigbee/Zigbee-Linux-and-the-GPL.html">http://freaklabs.org/index.php/Blog/Zigbee/Zigbee-Linux-and-the-GPL.html</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>Akiba<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>FreakLabs Open Source Zigbee Project<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>http://www.freaklabs.org<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
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