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Allnet GPL Infringement Settled Constructively
Elektroschock writes "LWN has coverage of a GPL dispute settled in a constructive manner. Allnet GmbH, German manufacturer and distributor of networking equipment, including switches, routers, NICs and wireless adapters, infringed the GNU Public License of netfilter/iptables. As part of the settlement Allnet GmbH will donate money to tax-exempt not-for-profit organizations, i.e. FSF Europe and FFII. Both organisations lobby for better copyright and patent legislation in Europe."
nt
WHAT OPERATING SYSTEM DO YOU USE because it has ALL BEEN LOGGED!.
.
"ONE LINE OF SOURCE CODE MEANS GUILTY!"
You had a safe, comfortable middle-class life? No, you thought you had, but you didn't. You are a CRIMINAL, you are GUILTY and you can be EXECUTED.
You are just another statistic criminal. Do you want YOU and your PARTNER and KIDS to be DRAGGED from your home and SHOT IN THE STREET?
Is your anus insured for AIDS RAPE?
Does your life insurance cover FORCED PRISON SEX and AIDS DEATH ? Check the policy - maybe not. Does "your" life-insurance carry a clause in the contract about perverts, convicts and enemies of society JUST LIKE YOU? Why should they insure "SOURCE CODE THIEVES" like you?
Scociety hates you.
What are your family going to do when you are jailed for 50 years with no parole? Do you reckon your spouse will hang around for 1 year let alone 50 years before they get lonely and find another partner to love them?
You can be JAILED and RAPED.
A great big muscle-bound GAY RAPIST will tie you to the PRISON BARS and RAPE YOUR ASS with his AIDS AND WART-INFESTED PENIS
You will be forced to SUCK AIDS INFECTED DICKS . Do you want that?
SOCIETY SUCKS and you had better get used to it because this is what you can expect when YOUR COMPUTER is EXAMINED FOR EVIDENCE by the "government".
You will soon learn how "LAWFUL" AND "CORRECT" your government is when you are being raped and the prison guards are looking the other way - or WATCHING or JOINING IN.
DO YOU WANT TO BE RAPED? WELL, DO YOU?
Your "government" wants you to be RAPED IN THE ASS and you had better wise up before they get YOUR ass, because they can recover what OS you use LAST YEAR and use it to kidnap you and rape you.
STOP yourself and your family and kids being kidnapped and raped by criminals.
Protect yourself - don't be a dirty GNU hippie - BUY A SCO(R) LISENCE(tm) TODAY!.
NOW ONLY $699, YOU COCK SMOKING TEABAGGERS!!!!!
This message has been brought to you by the good GOATDOCTOR - Proctologist by Trade (now with 31% more niggardly behaviour!)
Once again the GPL reigns superior over all proprietary non-free software! Eat it you corporate backing motherfuckers!!!
There's no emoticon for what I'm feeling.
Wow... people resolving lawsuits....GPL related... and it's on slashdot.... I... I'm speechless... I want to make fun of somebody and talk about how sucky the world is... i..i... can't.....
The rest of the companies out there using gpl code and not giving back laugh at Stallman and the FSF. Has a GPL violation ever even gone to court yet? It would be pretty funny if the GPL was unenforceable. Anything to piss off Stallman and his cult geek hordes is a good thing.
0008d90 8b71 8906 89d1 8b07 0446 d589 4789 0f04
0008da0 46bf 0908 89e9 89d5 0847 e909 468b 890c
0008db0 89d5 0c47 d889 f8c1 0910 83e9 03f8 0d74
0008dc0 f883 7404 8b1d 1046 4789 0910 89d1 8bc8
0008dd0 241c 748b 0424 7c8b 0824 6c8b 0c24 c483
0008de0 c310 468b 8918 89d3 1847 d909 468b 891c
Part of a hexdump of the linux kernel binary. And I'm not providing the source.
How is (a violation of) IPTables valued? Since this was a "donation" under German law, I wonder if the amount is part of the public record. Can any Germans comment?
"We are very happy with the cooperative manner of Allnet in which this issue was resolved and an amicable agreement reached", notes Harald Welte, the Chairman of the Netfilter Core Team. It's really nice to get some good news instead of the average sco cr*p of the GPL being unconstitutional or viral. All this talk about how gpl is a difficult license because it's incompatible with other licenses, and people don't seem to grasp that it's only incompatible with licenses that have more RESTRICTIONS than the gpl, ie if your brand new license v 1.0 has other restrictions besides the ones the gpl accepts, it's quite natural that it will be incompatible. It's like saying, "hey this source is free for you to copy, reproduce but you may never show it to anyone", oh and gpl sucks becuase the fsf say's we're not compatible with their silly little license. Here we see the power of gpl and fsf. It's been said that the gpl is weak because it's never been tested in court. Well maybe there's a reason. Maybe becuase fsf and the open source movement is gaining momentum and companies are trying not to gain new enemies from potential customers. There are still some that do not realize that alienating customers might be bad for business, and that the gpl is a license to adhere to, just as any other license. Take KISS as an example with their way of handling the mplayer debacle, I for one am not going to support kiss-technology.com as long as they maintain their arrogant position. Vote with your wallets, support free software.
Why do certain companies not research beforehand, that what they are doing is illegal?
Why do people have to resort to things like this, before they complay with the terms of a license?
I know money is a strong factor, but should morals really go out the window?
A company should really research the terms of the license, of a product they are using, but perhaps they just hope that people won't notice...
After all, it is easy money, if no one finds out.
I've been taught that copyright infringement is really piracy, so these guys are pirates!
AAAAAARRRGH! Ye knows whats we does with pirates, don't ye? We keelhauls them, we do, matey!
More seriously, I'm dying to hear of one, just *one*, case of GPL infringement by a RIAA member organisation. Oh, the fun we'll have...
Its good to seea positive outcome come out from this. FSF doesnt have to waste money going to court. and Allnet continues to use the gpl code to further the penetration of open source work into the market. If Allnet did not settle they wouldve been crushed when common copyright law came down on them like a tonne of bricks.
It's really nice to get some good news instead of the average sco cr*p of the GPL being unconstitutional or viral.
All this talk about how gpl is a difficult license because it's incompatible with other licenses, and people don't seem to grasp that it's only incompatible with licenses that have more RESTRICTIONS than the gpl, ie if your brand new license v 1.0 has other restrictions besides the ones the gpl accepts, it's quite natural that it will be incompatible. It's like saying, "hey this source is free for you to copy, reproduce but you may never show it to anyone", oh and gpl sucks becuase the fsf say's we're not compatible with their silly little license. Here we see the power of gpl and fsf. It's been said that the gpl is weak because it's never been tested in court. Well maybe there's a reason. Maybe becuase fsf and the open source movement is gaining momentum and companies are trying not to gain new enemies from potential customers.
There are still some that do not realize that alienating customers might be bad for business, and that the gpl is a license to adhere to, just as any other license. Take KISS as an example with their way of handling the mplayer debacle, I for one am not going to support kiss-technology.com as long as they maintain their arrogant position.
Vote with your wallets, support free software. (Sorry for the repost, just hate bad formatting.)
Lawyers file lawsuit. Lawyers settle lawsuit, with defendant agreeing to donate money to lawyers. How is this constructive?
Rather than giving money to the FSF, why not give money to groups which write free software?
Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
FSF has said they will later publish some statistics from 'GPL compliance lab' like a number of GPL infringement cases they have so far settled out of courts. I guess there must be plenty of them already all over the world. For some unknown reason they have already given more GPL enforcement information in their _proprietary_ seminar tagged for hunders of bucks... free as in freedom, not as in...
Whoever cannot see the irony deserves to feel insulted.
Has anyone hunted through that leaked Windows source for GPLed code? Not much a chance but it would be lovely if there were some. Then all our software would be free.
That press release doesn't say anything about a lawsuit. It just says there was a settlement and that there was infringement. Presumably there was at least the threat of a lawsuit, but it doesn't say whether a suit was actually filed. Does anyone know? And yes, the FSF writes free software--perhaps you've heard of GCC, for example.
There are two distinct types of people in this world:
Those who look at GPL code, and those that look at MS Windows code. Both camps do their very best never to see the other's.
Think of it as a capital shift from the Bad Lawyers to the Good Lawyers, that in the process establishes a legal precedent for future GPL cases.
Not all lawyers are bad, ya know...
Tal
"Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
Damn kids these days, they just don't know how to start a proper flamewar...
This sig is intentionally left blank
They violate GPL code in netfilter and have to pay only for the EU? What about the rest of us? IPtables had a developer or two who are not from Europe you know? Is the EU really doing an US against them to America or what? this hardly seems fair to me.
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
How was this off topic? The topic is about gpl infringement and the post is about gpl infringement. Get a clue and use your mod points more accurately next time!
...I use the elvis vi clone.
Everybody rips off the gpl. It's not even enforceable. For every story like this there are 10,000 other companies doing the same thing and will never be caught or are even afraid of being caught. Thanks for the spaghetti code though, dirty hippies. I was going to rip off the telnet server code, but it was such a monsterous mess it wasn't even worth it.
The link to Allnet is wrong in a way which suggests that it's spam. The correct link is http://www.allnet.de/.
Richard Stallman touched my junk liberally. he strapped me in to his stallmobile and he couldnt keep his offensive hands off of me. he was performing many red flag touches. i couldnt believe what the fuck was going on. i told Richard Stallman the city would not approve of a millionaire touching an underage kid for free.
can you believe it? Richard Stallman did all this. he picked me off the street, strapped my arms and legs down in the stallmobile's passenger seat, and just wouldn't stop fondling my cock'n'balls.
they definately were red flag touches. the goddamn referee he had in the back seat kept on raising up this red flag every time he touched my junk but did Richard Stallman care? NO WAY! he just kept on doing it. I couldn't believe what the fuck was going on, indeed. I pleaded with Richard Stallman but to no avail. I told him the city would not approve of such a wealthy man touching an underage kid like me (at the time I was 13) without at least compensating me for the trauma and the use of my body as his own personal plaything.
this got to him, worrying about his image. he continued to fondle me, all the while ignoring the referee's red flags. then he drove the stallmobile to my house and ejected the seat i was in! it was amazing. but surprisingly, after I woke up the next morning, my bank account had $150k in it!!! Can you believe it?
You don't do that. Don't talk about settled cases. Do act like SCO. Copyright infringements are not discussed in the public. We don't need a enforcement directive, we just need good code and persons who respect licenses.
well wasn't really a story, but they did have a little writeup about it. Some linkage for you
I'd be much happier if companies were forced to release good, unhindered specs/APIs... I don't care if you didn't give out your specific implementation, fine... whatever... but give me the means to create my own implementation that can function the same as theirs. Is that soo much to ask?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
For example, there was a copy of the GPL in the box with the last projector I bought (a Panasonic PT-AE200E). One of the features of this projector is projecting digital photos straight off an SD card, and it appears that the slideshow software used was released under the GPL. I wonder how long it will be before we see copies of the GPL arriving with new microwave ovens?
I don't see them amking any restrictions on telling people what you learnt at the seminar. On what basis do you call it "proprietary"? Having to pay for something does not make it proprietary.
But it isn't just their customers who get those rights. Under 3(b) of the GPL any third party can ask for "a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code". And I imagine that it will be more code than netfilter/iptables too due to the viral (ahem) nature of the GPL.
Paying big bucks (euros in this case) makes one immune from GPL infringment claims. What the shame ...
_proprietary_ seminar?
So Columbia Law School charges for its seminars. The idea is that the hot shot lawyers who want to attend pay big bucks to attend the seminar. I am sure that if you are a law student, you can attend for free if you ask the organizer politely.
I have to admit, when companies act like this in the face of adversity it makes me want to buy their stuff.
Pico wins.
Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
But did they release the code? Donations be damned, the GPL says (paraphrasing here): "Do what ye will, but show me the code you distribute, me hardys!"
Otherwise they continue to violate, right?
If ($distribution > 0 && $source < 0)
if ($money > $cha-ching)
violate = 0
else
violate = 1
fi
fi
Sig
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars
Only DORKS get caught using GPLed code in their products.
In contract law (of which licensing law is just a part), at least in the US, breaches of contract are generally presumed to be completely solved by the payment of damages (money). Forcing someone to behave in accordance with the contract terms is called specific performance. The remedy of specific performance is usually limited to a very narrow class of cases (the classic example is a contract for the sale of land), Anytime you can get specific performance of a contract, it is a FANTASTIC result.
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
I don't recall ever having done so.
Once and for all wake the fuck up. It's NOT a GPL infringement/violation. It's COPYRIGHT infringement/violation.
I can't believe people are still submitting news posts to slashdot like that. Scroll up and re-read the post.
Liberty.
We should get some coders to create some good open source DRM. You know they wouldn't resist :)
As ordinary consumer devices become more computerised, we will likely see more GPL code embedded in such devices as it's cheaper than developing from scratch for the manufacturer. What I'd worry about is whether we will see the GPL included in cases where it is not externally obvious that the device contains GPL code (e.g. what about a digital media player that contains a GPL'ed codec - how would you know?)
Real men program with toggle switches.
I don't see the issue. Do you worry about the FCC notices? Links to BSA standards? The license says that is what you do, they do it.
As to the Q you put here, the *developers* know!
Only customers who get the product need to be given the source.
The your customer gives someone else the product, the code has to be given to them *by that customer*
On the subject of GPL disregard:
When questioned about SCO bundling GPL programs, Blake Stowell said:
"Our issue is with the enforceability of the GPL".
-
When software is released with a GPL license, the author(s) still retains the copyright, but is granting specific terms under which the copyrighted work may be used without consulting the author.
If Mr. Stowell and SCO do not believe that the terms of license are valid, then the agreement of the license is nullified, and use of the work without other permission from the author is breaking copyright law.
Under these special circumstances, I believe that the authors of the GPL software in question should get clarification, and ask SCO for a written agreement to the terms of the GPL, or else demand a halt to the software use, and possibly payment for any infringement.
A license is not a contract.
There is no negotiation with a license, there is with a contract. If the GPL was contractally agreed to, then the code CAN be forced to be opened, since they did not act as the contract requires. As the GPL is a license, failing to obey the license means you have no allowance to use the code, but it does not force you into an action other than
1) Pay damages (possibly)
2) Stop issuing the code you have no right to
This whole article is about a situation where they (initially) didn't do it (follow the terms of the GPL).
In case you didn't notice, a projector is computer hardware. Your dvd player is computer hardware too.
Now, when companies start including the GPL with hatracks and dishware, then you will know that Stallman has conquered the world.
The seminar material is freely available on the web.
Not all places offer space to hold seminars for free. Hell, most churches don't do it, most american legions don't, and I don't know a single KoC hall that does it, unless it's a favor for someone important.
So spit out your hunnerd and share with the world... I'm sure the FSF has GPL'd their seminars.
-Chris
A lot better. I use it almost all the time.
When pico gets mouse support, highlighting, bracket match, regex search/replace, and multiple buffers, let me know.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Well, I know Allnet pretty well, their founder and boss went to school with me, their headquarter is only one km away and they sponsored lots of our local (larger) lan-parties.
:-) So why don't take advantage of this nasty mistake and make big news which are not really easy to make otherwise for a medium-sized network-equpiment-distributor?
So I guess Wuffis techies did the usual: bought asian equipment, did some minor rework and labeled the box Allnet. And as usual those asians don't really care bout the gpl at all and don't really inform their european customers about those minor glitches.
And here comes Wuffis powerfull point: He knows good PR when cornered by it
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
When I bought one of these FlashTrax things I was suprirsed to see in the 'about box' that it ran on linux. A query about getting the source came back with a 'our software engineering partners are considering releasing parts of the code as source', and nothing more ...
Who needs to be contacted/go to action about this?
_
\\/ are accustomed' - First Lensman
I don't see the problem.
And I can't live without ^W/^/ and indent mode.
It's just uncivilized without them!
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
KDE Vs Gnome
Emacs Vs Vi
MP3 Vs Ogg
and every geek's current favorite
SCO Vs The entire universe
btw I side with Linux, Linux, America, Conservative, Everyone, KDE, Vi, MP3 and The entire universe.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
A German world conpiracy, a takeover of the internet backbone
Considering that country's history, it might not be all that unreasonable of an accusation.
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
With 3(a) you are only obliged to give source to the people you give binaries to. However Allnet did not accompany the binary code with the source code, and so 3(b) applies: I am "any third party", so if I ask, they must give me the source code. I agree if they had accompanied their binaries with the source at the time, then 3(a) would have applied, but they didn't.