[belorn]

There is plenty of ways to say No. If my company is distributing someone else program which is under GPL and then get sued for patent infringement, we would not be willing to pay money per unit so we can continue distribute that software. We would either rewrite the parts covered under the patent or use a different software. But paying for the privilege to distribute someone else project?

If your in a situation where you want to use someones else project, and would be willing to pay per unit to distribute it to your users, what would you pick. A patent deal to get the privilege to distribute a GPLv2 program, or a supported and legal protected proprietary program? I would pick option 3, ie, write my own program or fight the patent depending on which ever is affordable. In this regard, what license the original program was in matter very little if at all.