ilf wrote: > Multiple leakes documents show the product portfolio for the > "Governmental IT Intrusion and Remote Monitoring Solutions" [might include > GPL'd software] ... > IANAL. And I am not an expert on the GPL or GPL-violations. But do > you see possible GPL violations here? Do you see a possibility for > action?
If someone used GPL'd software to build some software the government wanted, and distributed it to them, the only reason it'd be a GPL violation would be if, upon distribution to the government, there was a violation. The government, for example, has no obligation to distribute the software further outside the government (and they'd presumably not want to do so). I'd suspect the only entity reliably able to report a GPL violation here would be the government itself. It's unfortunate to see Free Software used for bad purposes, but it's by design that the license doesn't restrict use for any particular purpose, even if that purpose is not one that the copyright holders of the software dislike. -- bkuhn
