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Castle Denies GPL Breach

Posted by chrisd on from the right-back-at-cha dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "Castle Technology, who were accused of breaching the GPL in RISC OS 5, have made a press release denying the allegations. This story has been covered on The Iconbar RISC OS news and resource site." We've given Castle some loving here on slashdot recently. Looks like this one isn't going away quietly.

3 of 348 comments (clear)

  1. Will this be the first GPL test case? by Anonymous+Coward++1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From what I understand, the GPL (and most software licenses it seems) has never been tested in court. Perhaps this will be that test. I only hope that the GPL holds up in court.

    So it's, one, test the GPL in court, two, pray it holds up???, three, GPL software profits!

    Imagine how happy Microsoft would be if the GPL is ruled invalid...

    --
    Karma: Bad (mostly affected by being such an asshole)
  2. Seems reasonable by Alan+Cox · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They say its not used GPL code in some old editions, and they wont be doing so in future. Its not clear if there is some release they did. They don't say they havem't done it with current code. Since they are making a floppy of the relevant code available that is a good step and means someone can check nicely and settle the question for good.

  3. Nothing will happen by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Look at what little happened over the Virgin Webplayer.

    It used a Linux kernel, some libc parts and shipped with this clause in the EULA
    Section 2.2 of the member agreements reads as follows:

    2.2 Webplayer Software License. Subject to the
    provisions of this Agreement, we grant to you a
    limited, non-exclusive, personal, non-transferable license to use and display the Webplayer Software in object code form only, solely as part of and as necessary to use the Webplayer and the Virginconnect Services. Except for the license granted to you above, we (or our licensors) retain all right, title and
    interest, including all intellectual property rights, in and to the Webplayer Software. You may not attempt (or authorize any attempt) to defeat, obstruct or
    block any or all of the Webplayer Software functionality, or to decompile, reverse engineer or disassemble the Webplayer or the Webplayer Software.

    Nothing happened to them, and unless the people who actually OWN the copyright grow a backbone and take it to court, nothing else will happen.