Hi Miroslav,

I am well aware that Google is a big company, and like all big companies
they can function in an unethical manner. There are no exceptions. I catch
SpaceX in lies and omissions all of the time even though I obviously admire
what they are doing with rockets.

I worked for their outside counsel as a case strategist in Oracle v.
Google, mostly collecting evidence that Sun had in its time committed all
of the acts that Oracle was accusing Google of committing with Sun's
software. In this case, Google's defense was in the interest of Free
Software. I wasn't allowed to go on the stand because of a blog posting I'd
previously written that they didn't want me questioned upon, so they
replaced me with Nimmer. If you're going to be replaced, being replaced by
Nimmer, who is cited by courts an incredible number of times, isn't bad.

It is true that we are taken advantage of by big companies. But the ones
which really irk me are the ones who disregard the license like VMWare, and
lately Grsecurity. It happens that some of these companies have paid me to
fix their problems and come into compliance.

Our licenses are the rules we made. They are the only things we really have
a right to expect people to follow. Google is pretty good about following
the rules, and if ever I think they aren't, I have access to management and
can fix it.

Grsecurity's complaint is that they made free software, and people aren't
doing what they want with it. So, they became a proprietary business. But
note that they didn't even develop a trademark for their proprietary
product that is different from the Free Software, because their product is
the Free Software. I am fine with their being a proprietary business as
long as they don't try to take Free Software private while they're doing
it, or make proprietary derivative works of Free Software - and of course
that's just what they are doing.

If they want to be proprietary, they should make a security product that
isn't so interleaved with Linux that it can't help but be in violation, or
they should make it for the BSD kernel where they can fit into the rules. I
can't work up any sympathy for them until they do that or find some means
of distributing their product that doesn't so clearly break the rules.

    Thanks

    Bruce