Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 23rd Sep 2007 13:31 UTC
The Software Freedom Law Center has filed the first US infringement case to defend the General Public License version 2. The case has been brought against Monsoon Multimedia, a specialist in video viewing and capturing devices, which has offices in Silicon Valley and in New Delhi. SFLC legal director Dan Ravicher told The Register: "This case could have far-reaching implications because it's the first case in the US to enforce copyright in GPL."
Thread beginning with comment 273581
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE: Machine readable code?
by lemur2 on Sun 23rd Sep 2007 14:10
in reply to "Machine readable code?"
Member since:2007-02-17
They weren't distributing the executables?!? Not to nitpick but shouldn't they be talking HUMAN readable code...
There are several press articles online from a day or so ago which explain this much better:
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070920153227686
http://linux-watch.com/news/NS3973290690.html
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,182497.s...
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/sep/20/busybox/complaint.p...
... and here is the forum discussion which provoked it all ...
http://www.myhava.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=499
There are a number of statements from Monsoon Multimedia to the effect that the source for BusyBox as it appears in the Hava device would be made available soon, but apparently it never was ...
As soon as Monsoon Multimedia make the source code for BusyBox (as it appears in the Hava) available, the whole thing will blow over.
I cannot for the life of me imagine any scenario where it makes sense for Monsoon Multimedia to fight this in court as opposed to the simple act of making available source code to BusyBox which is already open source anyway.
Edited 2007-09-23 14:13
Member since:
2005-07-12
They weren't distributing the executables?!? Not to nitpick but shouldn't they be talking HUMAN readable code...