Saturday, September 22, 2007

First U.S. GPL lawsuit filed

Linux-Watch reports: "For the first time in the U.S., a company and software vendor, Monsoon Multimedia, is being taken to court for a GPL violation. Previously, alleged GPL violations have all been settled by letters from the FSF (Free Software Foundation) or other open-source organizations, pointing out the violation. ... The SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) announced on Sept. 20 that it had just filed the first ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GNU General Public License (GPL) on behalf of its clients. The group's clients are the two principal developers of BusyBox."

I think this is going to be the first real test of the GPL in U.S. court. I believe this case could possibly set a precedent for future GPL cases.

No comments: