> I don't think other companies have to feel threatened.
Many CTOs of large enterprises have, let's say, a less nuanced view of the GPL. Their concern is that "just complying" would mean the complete and total revelation of all of their code, all of their trade secrets, and thus all of their competitive advantage. They believe, wrongly, that there are no other ways to come into compliance than to do something they believe would kill their business. Cases like this are accelerants on those flames of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
I'm sure they could have licensed the equivalent code from someone like Oracle, but the CFO would have probably balked at the costs. VMware received an extremely generous offer from Hellwig and his co-contributors, at zero price, even. Not honouring their side of the deal is no different from defrauding any other of their contractors.
I'm actually agreeing with you. The trick is that the remedy for defrauding a vendor is clear: you pay a fine. I've worked directly with folks who believed that the only remedy for a GPL violation was completely turning over their entire business to the public domain. That fear kept them from even touching GPL'd code, including in ways that would be completely compliant and beneficial to everyone involved.
CTOs are not unused to contracts and licenses. I refuse to believe that they are incapable of dealing with outside entities and coming to terms. VMware is just being willfully rotten.
Many CTOs of large enterprises have, let's say, a less nuanced view of the GPL. Their concern is that "just complying" would mean the complete and total revelation of all of their code, all of their trade secrets, and thus all of their competitive advantage. They believe, wrongly, that there are no other ways to come into compliance than to do something they believe would kill their business. Cases like this are accelerants on those flames of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.