[Arm-netbook] Conflict-free minerals

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Thu, Sep 7, 2017 at 11:45 PM,  <doark at mail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Aug 2017 08:15:26 +0100
> Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> wrote:
>
>>  thus sadly they no longer have the right to distribute the FP2.  or
>> future products.  if they continue to do so they will be operating as
>> an illegal criminal cartel (an Organised Crime Syndicate) *not* a
>> Cooperative.
>
> Does this refer to their "US Legal rights" to distribute their products
> or that we should not give them the right to distribute their products to
> us by virtue of a purchase?

 it's copyright law, plain and simple.  if you violate the GPLv2 you
lose all distribution rights.  if you then *continue* to distribute
without those rights, you are in criminal infringement of copyright
law.  if a *company* continues to do that, the company is breaking the
law.  if a company is breaking the law, it is no longer a company, it
is a criminal cartel.  it's a simple chain.  many people have pointed
out however a flaw in this logic, that copyright is a civil offense
not a criminal offense.

l.