Proprietors not as friendly to infringers as Free Software copyright holders
,----[ Quote ]
| Quite to the contrary, the SFLC is using litigation as a last resort: I doubt
| any well-known proprietor would take all the steps the SFLC has taken to
| remedy the infringement without publicity or lawsuit. Eben Moglen has
| enforced the GPL for many years and says that “compliance with the license,
| and security for future good behavior, are the most important goals”, which
| meant Moglen was in private talks with many infringers, rarely requiring from
| them public admission of wrongdoing. This is, Moglen says, a big reason why
| the lack of GPL court cases shows how strong the GPL is: it’s rare to find
| anyone who wanted to test the waters...
`----
http://www.digitalcitizen.info/2007/11/29/proprietors-not-as-friendly-to-infringers-as-free-software-copyright-holders/
http://tinyurl.com/3yp37e
Darl Ballmer on the other hand:
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20071202&mode=classic
Related:
Second Round of GPL Infringement Lawsuits Filed on Behalf of BusyBox Developers
,----[ Quote ]
| The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) today announced that it has filed two
| more copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of its clients, two principal
| developers of BusyBox, alleging violation of the GNU General Public License
| (GPL). The defendants in the lawsuits are Xterasys Corporation and High-Gain
| Antennas, LLC. BusyBox is a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities
| commonly used in embedded systems and is open source software licensed under
| GPL version 2.
`----
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/nov/20/busybox/
Is the Monsoon settlement a missed opportunity?
,----[ Quote ]
| Certainly more was hoped for from the first US GPL lawsuit. “This case is
| very important because it will establish what type of remedies (either
| contract or copyright) are available to licensors for breach of the GPLv2,”
| wrote Mark Radcliffe at the time the complaint was filed.
|
| However, for those looking for legal precedent, all may not be lost. “Stay
| tuned, however, as this is likely not the last lawsuit we will see here in
| the U.S. to enforce the terms of the GPL,” notes Haislmaier.
`----
http://blogs.the451group.com/opensource/2007/10/31/is-the-monsoon-settlement-a-missed-opportunity/
Do Microsoft's EULAs have any real legal basis?
,----[ Quote ]
| "Microsoft has no special exemption from the sale of goods act." Well,
| no, probably not - but it might still be selling you "services"
| instead of "goods". But the real point to remember is that it doesn't
| matter a jot what the "logical" position is, it is what the courts
| decide that matters.
|
| As far as I know, no one has tested Microsoft's EULAs in a UK court
| and, until someone does, Microsoft will just go on assuming that they
| work. And I don't fancy the risk of taking on Microsoft's expensive
| lawyers in court myself...
`----
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/04/25/microsoft_eula/
BusyBox Developers and Monsoon Multimedia Agree to Dismiss GPL Lawsuit
,----[ Quote ]
| The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and Monsoon Multimedia today jointly
| announced that an agreement has been reached to dismiss the GPL enforcement
| lawsuit filed by SFLC on behalf of two principal developers of BusyBox.
`----
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/oct/30/busybox-monsoon-settlement/
And Just Like That, The Games End — First Ever GPL Lawsuit Dismissed
,----[ Quote ]
| In the agreement to dismiss the lawsuit, the SFLC is reporting that Monsoon
| Multimedia has agreed to appoint an “Open Source Compliance Officer” within
| its organization “to monitor and ensure GPL compliance, to publish the source
| code for the version of BusyBox it previously distributed on its web site,
| and to undertake substantial efforts to notify previous recipients of BusyBox
| from Monsoon Multimedia of their rights to the software under the GPL.
|
| [...]
|
| Stay tuned, however, as this is likely not the last lawsuit we will see here
| in the U.S. to enforce the terms of the GPL.
`----
http://thinkingopen.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/and-just-like-that-the-games-end-first-ever-gpl-lawsuit-dismissed/
SFLC: Setting Legal Precedent Not the Goal of GPL Case
,----[ Quote ]
| Software Freedom Law Center co-founder Dan Ravicher says the Center’s
| copyright infringement case against Monsoon Multimedia on behalf of the
| creators of BusyBox is not about setting legal precedent for the use and
| interpretation of the GNU General Public License.
`----
http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/osb/?p=241
GPL defenders say: See you in court
,----[ Quote ]
| The license also requires anyone distributing GPL software, in an executable
| form that a computer can run, to make the complete source code available. One
| example: Cisco Systems subsidiary Linksys, which shares the GPL software
| used in its wireless networking equipment.
`----
http://www.news.com/GPL-defenders-say-See-you-in-court/2100-7344_3-6210837.html
First U.S. GPL lawsuit heads for quick settlement
,----[ Quote ]
| The first U.S. GPL-related lawsuit appears to be headed for a quick
| out-of-court settlement. Monsoon Multimedia admitted today that it had
| violated the GPLv2 (GNU General Public License version 2), and said it will
| release its modified BusyBox code in full compliance with the license.
`----
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3761924232.html
New Method To Detect and Prove GPL Violations
,----[ Quote ]
| "A paper to be presented at the upcoming academic conference Automated
| Software Engineering describes a new method to detect code theft and could be
| used to detect GPL violations in particular. While the co-called birthmarking
| method is demonstrated for Java, it is general enough to work for other
| languages as well..."
`----
http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/25/1648253&from=rss
German Court convicted Skype of violating the GPL
,----[ Quote ]
| German district court Munich has convicted Skype of violating the GPL. One of
| the VoIP telephones sold by Skype run Linux, but the GPL text was not handed
| out together with the phone, although the GPL requires that.
`----
http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/german-court-convicted-skype-of-violating-the-gpl/#comment-27057
German GPL defender claims legal victory
,----[ Quote ]
| Open-source programmer Harald Welte said Thursday he won a civil court
| case in Germany centered on the General Public License (GPL). The license
| governs many open-source projects and permits anyone to use software
| covered by it, but requires that companies incorporating GPL software
| make the underlying source code available.
`----
http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-6113453.html?part=rss&tag=6113453&subj=news
gpl-violations.org project prevails in court case on GPL violation by D-Link
,----[ Quote ]
| D-Link Germany GmbH, a subsidiary of D-Link Corporation, Taiwan R.O.C.,
| distributed DSM-G600, a network attached storage (NAS) device which uses a
| Linux-based Operating System. However, this distribution was incompliant
| with the GNU General Public License (GPL) which covers the Linux Kernel and
| many other software programs used in the product.
`----
http://gpl-violations.org/news/20060922-dlink-judgement_frankfurt.html
Wallace's Appeal Firmly Rejected - GPL Has Nothing to Fear [pdf]
,----[ Quote ]
| PJ: "Just so you know, Daniel Wallace's appeal of the ruling
| against him in his pro se quest to overthrow the GPL on antitrust
| grounds, one of SCO's daydreams too, has been firmly rejected by
| the appeals court, as I knew it would be."
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/WallaceAppealRejected.pdf
Would Dostoevsky Use the GPL?
,----[ Quote ]
| I get nervous whenever large software shops talk up the virtues of a license
| with fewer protections of developer and user rights. In the linked articles
| above, there is talk of permissive licenses being the path of least
| resistance, with the premise that it's "easier" to gravitate towards them. My
| question is - easier for whom? Easier for the developers or easier for the
| companies who wish to make use of it without those annoying obligations to
| the greater free software ecosystem? As is often mentioned by others smarter
| than me, a scenario where developers gravitate towards permissive licenses
| makes it easier for companies to avoid community reciprocity.
`----
http://tinosc.blogspot.com/2007/09/would-dostoevsky-use-gpl.html
|
|
