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GPL Violators On The Prowl

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the neither-rain-nor-snow-nor-hail-nor-packetstorm dept.

ravenII writes "GPL Violations.org are looking after the GPL. Warning letters were personally handed over to companies at their CeBIT booths by Mr. Harald Welte, free software developer and founder of the gpl-violations.org project. It seems big boys like Motorola, Acer, AOpen, Micronet, Buffalo and Trendware seem to violate GPL. Please visit the site for more information on GPL enforcements and violators."

6 of 636 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Held accountable? When? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 0, Troll

    Chance of happening: 0.000009%

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  2. Good thing! by prisoner-of-enigma · · Score: 0, Troll

    It's nice to know that someone is looking after the GPL.

    After all, as everyone here on /. knows, copyright violators are bad people who need to be punished. Right?

    Now, everyone go and enjoy your vast collection of pirated MP3's and DVD's you downloaded last month via Bittorrent. You can all nod your heads in a knowing, philosophical manner as you examine your hypocrisy and double standards.

    Attempts to justify your copyright infringement activities in the name of "sticking it to the man" or other variations of socio-economic class warfare will be automatically redirected to /dev/null.

    --
    In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  3. Facts? by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 0, Troll
    But the code doesn't have to be distributed publically under the GPL. It only has to be distributed to those to whom the product was distributed.

    What are these "facts" you speak of? Don't cloud the issue with the idea that people should ACTUALLY read the GPL, and maybe make an attempt to ACTUALLY understand it. Who are you?

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  4. Re:Harald Welte at FOSDEM by slavemowgli · · Score: 0, Troll

    Considering Theo de Raadt's main area of work is OpenBSD, which is licensed under a BSD license, I've got to admit I find it rather funny that you say he's fighting against proprietary software. I surely applaud his efforts to get wifi device drivers open-sourced, but still...

    --
    quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
  5. C Lawyers and wishful thinking by grikdog · · Score: 0, Troll

    The ability to utter legalese tends not to be the same as legal protection or legal sanction. It's possible that GPL, by exposing source code to public view, exposes authors to de facto publication, placing their efforts squarely in the public domain. I realize GPL doesn't say this! My point is that GPL may be moot, void and irrelevant, depending on what happens before constructionist judges the first time GPL is challenged. My guess is, attempts to enforce GPL may be thrown out of court as meritless pious fiction.

    --
    ``Tension, apprehension & dissension have begun!'' - Duffy Wyg&, in Alfred Bester's _The Demolished Man_
  6. Any of us could be sued into the ground. by KarmaMB84 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Ever put a GPLed binary on a USB stick and distribute it? Did you forget to include the source or offer it? No? Hope it's not netfilter/iptables because this guy will want $$$...