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What is the Best Way to Handle a GPL Violation?
DeadSea queries: "When you find that somebody is violating the GPL by distributing your code or a derivative of your code as a closed source product, how do you go about handling it? I have found two violations of the GPL for my Java Utilities, in the last month. The Free Software Foundation says that the copyright holder is the only person empowered to act. If you are the copyright holder, how do you communicate with the offenders? I know folks here must have dealt with this before: Linksys, SCO, Castle Technology, United Linux, and others. Personally, I would like to believe that with a little nudging (and without lawyers), I can resolve the things. As such, I would especially appreciate any example letters or other documents that might be effective."
...but get a lawyer. They do this for a living. They're not all scum. Why, I bet you've got at least one lawyer friend. Pay them (yes, pay -- even if this is a friend) to write up a letter and send it to the violator.
DIY is great for things you enjoy doing. Writing letters to copyright infringers isn't fun for many people.
1. Call the phone. Talk to them on the phone and explain the oversight. Be polite and approach the situation purely as a problem solver with a helpful attitude. But take notes and pay close attention to how they response.
IF THAT FAILS,
2. Craft a letter. Be professional but firm.
IF THAT FAILS,
3. Get a lawyer. A good one but one that will take the case for a percentage of this company that you are about to own.
Second, inform them that you are the author of the material that they are distributing, and that they have not fulfilled their obligations in order to obtain legal permission from you to distribute their changes to your code without making the source available, since the combined work (your code plus their changes) still contains your code and that code is still copyrighted by you and therefore still subject to your distribution requirements. They can comply with your copyright by removing every last line of code that you wrote or by releasing the source of their entire product. You can, at your option, also make alternative arrangements with them to grant them permission to distribute without the source in exchange for some compensation that you specify.
Doing it this way takes the focus off the fact that it's the "GPL", and it's viewed simply as a matter of straight copyright infringement, removing any possibility of potential discrimination against the GPL.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It doesn't matter what they took from him, only that it was taken. Someone could steal a potted plant or my automobile from the front of my house; the fact that the plant has little relative value next to the car doesn't make the theft of the plant any less a theft.
This has nothing to do with patent. This is a GPL violation. Get it straight.
The GPL does not guarantee that the world can receive your project "Freely". It only guarantees that your project itself will be Free.
In order to guarantee that Freedom for your software, it is necessary to sometimes fight for it. Fighting for it usually means battling legal challenges to your rights as copyright owner. These fights will cost you money.
Freedom is not free. It is not even cheap.
I have been pwned because my
I had a dispute with a company that was screwing me over, and I called and called, and told them the specific laws they were violating and that the law entitled me to $1000 damages for each violation (there were two violations). It was like talking to a wall. They knew that the cost of taking them to court was more than the cost of paying the ransom they were demanding from me.
Then I had a lawyer call them. They rolled over.
The reason? I had an airtight case against them, and the fact that a lawyer was calling them meant I was WILLING to go to court, although I never actually had to. They'd lose badly in court, so they settled.
Call a damn lawyer.
The question is not, why did they steal it, but how can you be sure they stole it. If it's a trivial function every Java programmer can do in his sleep, and everyone probably would do it large the same way.
;-)
Java, unlike perl, does not offer 20 ways to do every problem, so if ten people program a Base64 encoder, nine of them would probably do it the same way (they would read the RFC and translate the C code literally to Java). The tenth guy would probably do something else and break things in the process.
Do not aim for anything other than compliance.
No money
No apology
No donations
No release of their source
Nothing
Just compliance with the GPL. Period. You will win, because hardly anyone's stupid enough to fight a clear copyright, and compliance is a perfectly reasonable thing to ask.
This is America, damnit. Speak Spanish!