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Munich Court Again Enforces GPL

Posted by timothy on from the weg-to-go dept.

BrianWCarver writes "Despite earlier concerns reported on Slashdot that the GPL might be particularly difficult to enforce in Germany, that country's courts now hold the distinction of having enforced it twice. The first enforcement came in 2004 when Harald Welte of the netfilter/iptables core team sought to enjoin Sitecom from distributing its WL-122 router, which used netfilter's GPL'd code, without also providing the source code and a copy of the GPL, as that license requires. The Munich Court granted Welte a preliminary injunction and then upheld that injunction (Court's decision in English pdf) and now Sitecom provides the source code from their website. Welte, who also now runs gpl-violations.org to track GPL violations, and who personally handed over warning letters at Cebit to companies not in compliance with the GPL, reported on his blog today that he has obtained a new preliminary injunction enforcing the GPL, this time against Fortinet for distributing their firewall products (FortiGate and FortiWiFi) that include GPL'd code while Fortinet refuses to release the source. Congratulations again to Welte and his attorneys!"

10 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Wait a second... by selectspec · · Score: 2, Funny
    Congratulations again to Welte and his attorneys!.

    I'm all for GPL enforcement, but I'd just assume eat a copy of Windows XP before I'll congratulate an attorney.

    --

    Someone you trust is one of us.

  2. I used to live in Munich! by debilo · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mod me up!!

    1. Re:I used to live in Munich! by coopex · · Score: 2, Funny

      I have a tshirt from Munich!
      Mod me up!

      --
      The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
  3. Reason /. is so slow by doublem · · Score: 4, Funny

    The story doesn't get posted on /. until someone is willing to trade sexual favors in exchange for getting their article published. As a result, there'll always be some lag time between when a story breaks and when it gets posted.

    First, someone needs to notice it, and get emotionally involved.

    Next, someone needs to care enough to trade sexual favors.

    Then, someone actually has to shag one of the /. editors. (I hear this is the shortest step, and actually adds very little in terms of lag time)

    Finally, the article gets posted for all the /. readers to enjoy.

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  4. *pop* goes the brain by doublem · · Score: 2, Funny

    But, but, I thought Lawyers were BAD.

    Here they did something GOOD.

    *head explodes*

    --
    "Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
  5. I live in Munich! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mod me up too!!

  6. I've been to Munich! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Mod me up, too!!

  7. I got drunk in Munich! by MisanthropicProgram · · Score: 1, Funny

    Mod me up too!

  8. Re:Damn pro-business GPL haters by hacksoncode · · Score: 4, Funny

    So you're saying it's anti-business, right?

  9. Re:So, basically by End11 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Whatever the lawyers are, I don't think they're "idiots"; let's remember that they're the ones getting rich here.

    --

    Which is worse: ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?