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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."
Some of us think that the GPL is a good thing.
Some of us also think that settling things in an amicable way outsdie of the court system can be a good thing.
If you had bothered to read the article you'd also have noticed the following;
"As part of the aggreement, Allnet will make a significant donation to two tax-exempt non-for-profit organizations established under german law"
A good thing. You see now?
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?
Don't worry, we can still turn this into a
- Windows vs Linux
- Linux vs *BSD
- America vs Europe
- Conservative vs Liberal
or
- Everyone vs Mac flamewar
I'm sorry if I haven't offended anyone
"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.
I remind you of SCO's IBM/Linux copyright infringement claims, I remind you you of the validity problems of the GPL.
:-)
Don't forget Netfilter.org 'owned Allnet'
The settlement example shows how it is done in 'real business'. No media dirt, no false accusations, no 3 billion$ infringement lawsuits.
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.
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.
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...
Damn kids these days, they just don't know how to start a proper flamewar...
This sig is intentionally left blank
FSF Europe is NOT FSF.
Free Software Forundation Europe, that's Georg Greve and the European crowd, no zelots that force you to call your operating system GNU/linux. They are well respected European lobbyists. Money spent on EU lobbying saves a lot for projects. For instance the EU IPR enforcement directive may be very dangerous for EU citizens that 'just write code'.
And FFII is probably the most succesful player in patent legislation over the past 30 years. Patent attorney made their own laws for a long time.
The link to Allnet is wrong in a way which suggests that it's spam. The correct link is http://www.allnet.de/.
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?
Paying big bucks (euros in this case) makes one immune from GPL infringment claims. What the shame ...
FUD-alert ! Allnet did not just donate money to several organisations but also agreed to release their modifications under GPL and to work with iptables together in the future. So they agreed to comply with the GPL, release their code under GPL, work with the iptables team together and additionally donate some money. Which is good news, IMHP !