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FSF Threatens GPL Lawsuit

Posted by timothy on from the tlas-with-tlas dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dan Gillmor of the San Jose Mercury News reports that OpenTV is violating the GNU General Public License. He notes that the Free Software Foundation is threatening to file a lawsuit in the case. If you haven't become an associate member of the FSF yet, now would be a good time!" Note that Gillmor is reporting the FSF's claim of violation, not making it himself.

3 of 426 comments (clear)

  1. Suit has no basis by BTO · · Score: 0, Troll
    If you read the complaint, you'll find that they are basing their claim on Edgemont vs. Tandy Corporation, which was decided by a three-judge panel and is therefore subject to Inter-circuit arbitration.

    I think what you'll see happen in this case is that it will be granted cert in the 14th circuit, but they will kill it with a pocket veto before it grandfathers in a relatively new concept like the GPL.

    --

    Banach-Tarski Overdrive
  2. Everyone loses by nuggz · · Score: 0, Troll

    Everyone lost.
    We could have ALL (minus 1) had the benefit of this software for free.
    The very first person would have to purchase it, but then could freely redistribute to the world.
    By locking out the GPL we all lost use of this software, we also lost the ability to improve the software.
    Anyone who wanted a feature that was not added lost out.

  3. Playground Antics by cenobita · · Score: 0, Troll

    Am I the only one here who's absolutely sick of hearing about licensing this-licensing that? The GPL and FSF are just as bad as any proprietary software company, at least in attitude if not outright practice. The word "free" indicates to me "the freedom to do whatever the hell you want", but this is a far cry from the actuality of the FSF.

    By all means, it is within reason and legal right for the FSF to enforce the guidelines of the GPL..but at the end of the day, bully tactics are still bully tactics, no matter who's doing the pushing. This kind of bureacratic pushing and shoving over licensing agreements is simply childish and counterproductive.

    Before you toss the flames my way, just bear in mind that i'm stating a very simple point: Despite RMS and his ideals about software, there are multiple elements within the software world that are just as "evil" as proprietary software. This is one among many.