[Arm-netbook] CT-PC89E - translation of meaning behind this alibaba page

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 1:16 PM, Neil Brown <neil at neilzone.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Quoting Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <luke.leighton at googlemail.com>:
>
>> i wasn't expecting total abandonment of the product.
>>
>> ideas, anyone?
>
> My guess would be that they were scared off, considering it easier to deal
> with commercial licensing than with the open source community.
>
> Perhaps my legal background biases me, but, one of my observations of GPL
> "enforcement" is that, sometimes, the mechanisms and style for communicating
> with companies can be counter-productive - that there is a line between (a)
> trying to help them, and advising them of why it should comply, and (b)
> providing reams of lengthy correspondence, somewhat threatening in tone,
> about what will happen to it, should it fail to comply with the licensing
> terms.
>
> In this situation, were I in Chitech's placed, faced with the emails sent to
> them, and with a weaker grasp of the English language, and of the open
> source community, I think it is likely that I would have stopped using the
> Linux basis for my product, too. I regret that I was not able to provide the
> text of an email to send to Chitech, before the last communication was sent
> - unfortunately, real life can be demanding - but, I would be unsurprised to
> find that Chitech had been pushed over the edge.
>
> Simply put, to my mind, dealing with companies, and lawyers, can be easier
> and less painful for a supplier than the alternatives.

 well, perhaps there is something that can be rescued, then: the
designs and the linux source code from the lucky company to whom
chitech have sold the design (dafurong, i believe).

 l.