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GPL Lawsuit May Not Settle

Posted by kdawson on from the maybe-a-day-in-court-after-all dept.

A number of readers wrote in to inform us that contrary to earlier indications, it's no sure thing that the lawsuit alleging GPL violation by Monsoon Multimedia will get settled out of court. Linux.com now reports that the SFLC's legal director Daniel Ravicher has stressed that no agreement has been reached: "Simply coming into compliance now is not sufficient to settle the matter, because that would mean anyone can violate the license until caught, because the only punishment would be to come into compliance." (Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of Sourceforge, Inc.)

2 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Excuse me, but this is bunk... by Svartalf · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is NO damned different if you use a Proprietary Licensed product within your embedded device-
    if you fail to abide by the terms of the license grant for the protected Work(s) you are using, you
    can expect to get your ass sued at some point if it is found out that you're doing it.

    It doesn't matter if it's GPLed.
    It doesn't matter if it's MIT/X11 licensed.
    It doesn't matter if from Microsoft under an EULA or one of the Shared Source licenses.

    If you breach the terms of the licensing, you're guilty of breaking at least a civil contract if not
    outright Patent or Copyright infringement- PERIOD.

    There's no 'intricacies' involved with OSS in the first place- they're simpler licenses to follow.

    I'd be leery of dealing with anyone selling proprietary anything these days because of those 'intricacies'
    that are ALWAYS present with most proprietary products.

    Name of the game: Don't Cheat. Don't Get Greedy. Abide by the license terms, whatever they might be.

    --
    I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
  2. Re:Damages? by hedwards · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is correct information. As soon as a person in the US creates a copyrightable work, it is immediately copyright to that person. The exception being if it is a work for hire. The issue of who has the copyright is set permanently at that moment.

    The registration of a copyright is not required for a work to be copyright, it just has to be registered prior to filing suit. Doing so early on is a good idea as it makes it easier to defend in court, but it is definitely not compulsory to do so.

    http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#hsc Has plenty of relevant information. As well as:
    http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#cr