Linux Today asked the Free Software Foundation’s Bradley Kuhn if
he would like a chance to respond to today’s piece at Forbes.com.
He gave a brief statement and permission to post it here:
“Like many articles in the mainstream media, it does not
represent any of the sides all that well.“We have an ongoing productive and friendly conversation with
CISCO and Broadcom regarding their violation. In no violation case
have we ever filed a law suit, and rarely even get the point to
threaten one, because most companies feel that it is better for
them and their customers to come into compliance.“Companies make a conscious choice to join the GPL’ed world and
build their products in freedom. They are required in return to
respect the communities rights, and the characterizations in the
article don’t point out that it is a conscious quid pro quo for
companies. Also, Free Software licensing terms give much more
permissions than any proprietary equivalent that a company might
base their product on.”
Related Story:
Forbes:
Linux’s Hit Men(Oct 14, 2003)