Quoting kevin lyda (kevin at suberic.net):
> Do you realise that the GPL has never gone to court? There is
> currently one case that might make it to court between two companies
> that sell versions of MySQL, but that's it. Every other instance of
> GPL violations has been settled, and usually quite amicably.
>> Now, compare this with numerous proprietary licenses. The Business
> Software Alliance (the BSA) has handed out millions of dollars in
> fines to businesses that don't correctly follow closed source
> licenses.
Just a side comment: That is entirely _extrajudicial_. In fact, BSA
has one hell of a lot of gall referring to their monetary demands as
"fines". Those are in fact private monetary settlements arranged
directly among parties to a business dispute.
I'm not saying they don't have a right to arrange these private
agreements. I'm suggesting that it's cheeky for them to call those
"fines", a term that intended to suggest a basis in civil authority that
is in fact entirely absent.
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