Alleged GPL Violation Spurs Accusations, Lawsuit

lisah writes "Linux.com is reporting that Alexander Maryanovsky, the developer of Jin (a Java-based chess client), has filed a lawsuit alleging that International Chess University has violated several aspects of the GNU General Public License (GPL). Maryanovsky claims that the online chess training website and its CEO, Alexander Rabinovitch, are in violation of both his copyright and the GPL by distributing software that is based on Jin. According to the report, though Rabinovitch is dismissing most of the claims leveled against him, he has apparently left his native Israel for Canada and declines to give his exact whereabouts." Newsforge and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.

Comments

Re:Why?

[Tackhead]

> It's not like they are stealing or anything. And really, if people want to do this sort of thing no one is hurt here.

Naw, that'd be a BSD-style license, not a GPL :)

Re:Everybody gets this wrong

[ajs318]

You're correct. The necessary "written permission" needn't be the GPL -- it could be a separate agreement altogether. However, nobody but the copyright holder {or, in exceptional circumstances, the courts} has the power to grant such permission, and distributing GPL software without permission is no different to distributing any other copyrighted software without permission. Which is why the permission under the GPL originates from the copyright holder -- and even if you didn't receive a copy of the text of the GPL with the program {which is against the GPL conditions unless you specifically requested that}, in fact even if the copy you received is legally considered infringing, you still have all the permissions granted by the GPL.

He does not hold the copyright in the work in question, he did not comply with the conditions of the GPL, he did not pay for the commercial licence and his acts of distribution go well beyond Fair Dealing. Therefore, however you look at it, he is in violation of copyright.