Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 25th Sep 2009 14:01 UTC
In France, the GPL has scored yet another major win in court. What makes this infringements case special is that it was filed not by the developers of the infringed-upon code, but by users, demonstrating that they, too, can successfully enforce the GPL. Since I noted on a few threads here on OSNews that a lot of people still fail to grasp the difference between an open source license and an EULA, I figured I'd take this opportunity to explain the difference one more time - using hand-crafted diagrams!
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Member since:2005-10-12
The reason people try to conflate them seems to be that they would like to make the argument, presumably inspired by Cupertino marketing, that if Apple loses it will in some way negatively affect the GPL. In fact, it will not, and for the reasons given in the above post, one (GPL) is a matter of statutory law, copyright law.
The other (EULA) is a civil contract you have entered into with a supplier, whose terms may or may not be enforceable in your jurisdiction.
If Apple wins or loses, it will be on the EULA issue, and it will have no effect whatever on the GPL. So there is no reason to support Apple's case on acount of any worries about the GPL.
It is a bit like if I fail to pay my mortgage and get sued, if I win or lose, this will not affect the enforceability of the law on speed limits. Yes, the two things are that unrelated!
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/25/13 0:45 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 23:59 UTC
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 22:33 UTC
Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Linked by Howard Fosdick on 05/24/13 21:41 UTC
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 14:44 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 23:22 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:04 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 22:01 UTC
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/23/13 17:52 UTC
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/22/13 22:23 UTC
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2007-05-20
Let me tell you the difference in just a few lines:
- An EULA is a contract between the user and the company which developed the program. Whether this is applicable or not depends on the region and court case. Most of the times it will not hold up as you have not read it before purchasing the product, nor you have formally agreed to it (a simple keypress does not constitute a signature and there are no witnesses to the fact).
- An open source license on the other hand is not a contract, you do not sign it and you can't even violate it. You simply agree or disagree with it. You can not even be tried for violating it. Since an open source license in reality relieves you from restrictions imposed by the copyright law, if you do not agree with it then these restrictions are not relieved. You will be tried for copyright violation, not licensing violation. Copyright law is mostly similar and enforceable in most countries.
So saying that "GPL held up in court once more" is kind of silly. If you go against GPL, copyright law will get you. So yes, GPL will always "win".