On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 1:00 PM, Rich Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org> wrote:

On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 3:28 PM, William L. Thomson Jr.
<wlt-ml@o-sinc.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, January 14, 2017 8:16:58 PM EST Rich Freeman wrote:
>>
>> Honestly, saying that the Trustees legally have authority over the
>> Council is a bit like saying that the MPAA legally has authority over
>> anybody downloading torrents.
>
> The Council does not exist from a legal perspective. It has no legal
> authority. Only Trustees can represent the Foundation legally.
>

I never claimed otherwise.

However, this is a bit like saying that the MPAA has authority over
The Pirate Bay because the latter doesn't really exist legally, at
least not in the sense of a traditional corporation.

There is a difference between having legal authority and having power.
In a court of law there might not be a difference, but very little in
the way of FOSS happens in courtrooms.

--
Rich

IANAL

IIRC the whole purpose of the gentoo foundation is to own the IP and insulate the actual developers from legal issues, thus saith my dev quizzes.

The MPAA does not have legal authority over the pirate bay, it CAN however secure legal authority by filing a lawsuit against anyone administrating pirate bay activity, getting subpoenas, asking governments to issue indictments, and so on. There CAN be legal process against the individuals responsible for pirate bay stuff, and possibly any seeders or leachers they track down. Steele learned this the hard way when the FBI arrested him for the prenda law shenanigans, for example.

Similiarly, "gentoo" cannot be sued, because it does not exist as a legal entity. The Gentoo Foundation, however, can sue and be sued. It would legally be empowered to enforce, say, the GPL against people who violate its copyright over gentoo code, or press criminal charges against hackers who attack foundation servers or other property.

Rich0 is wise to point out that legal letter of the law is not the only factor of importance however.