[mythtv] Fwd: MYTHTV -> GPL Violation (someone violating Mythtv GPL License)

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Tue, Jun 17, 2014 at 8:55 PM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
...
> Is this just a convention on the part of most community members, or is
> it actually in the license?  As far as I understood it, this was still
> considered a license violation, just not one that anyone actually
> cared to do anything about.

The position was that since this was a never released
binary (it apparently "escaped" (your conspiracy theory
can be applied)), that the GPL would not apply to internal
work product (if you do not ship a product, did it ever
exist?).  The GPLv2 license only refers to released
product and not various efforts that may have been made.

HP "did the right thing" and released the kernel, but
their lawyers would have likely won any case filed.
Since HP was abandoning the touchpad (I still use one
of their firesale units), all I can conjecture is that they
just wanted the entire touchpad issue behind them.