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GPL vs. Skype Back In Court

Posted by timothy on from the remember-what-a-license-is dept.

mollyhackit writes "Hackaday reports that the GPL vs Skype case is going back to court today. This as an appeal to the court's decision Slashdot reported last July. The original case was brought against Skype for the Linux based SMC Skype WiFi phone. The court upheld the GPLv2 and decided that Skype had not gone far enough in meeting section 3 which details how to provide the original source. This time around Skype is apparently trying to argue that the GPL violates anti-trust regulations."

6 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. I fought the license.... by jeiler · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...and the license won!

    --

    If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.

    Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

    1. Re:I fought the license.... by sm62704 · · Score: 4, Funny
      I usually prefer the Dead Kennedys version of that song to The Crickets version, but not in this case. YAY GPL!

      Drinkin' beer in the hot sun, I fought the law and I won
      I needed sex and I got mine, I fought the law and I won
      The law don't mean shit if you've got the right friends
      That's how the country's run
      Twinkies are the best friend I've ever had
      I fought the law And I won
      I blew George & Harvey's brains out with my six-gun
      I fought the law and I won
      Gonna write my book and make a million
      I fought the law and I won
      I'm the new folk hero of the Ku Klux Klan
      My cop friends think that's fine
      You can get away with murder if you've got a badge
      I fought the law And I won I am the law So I won
      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  2. Re:Shooting itself in the foot by 91degrees · · Score: 5, Funny

    Option 3 - the clause that requires them to release code is invalid/only applies to the unmodified version of the code. Option 4 - Chewbacca is a Wookie and therefore the copyright belongs to Skype. Both of these are unlikely but there's not a dichotomy here.

  3. Re:Simple Solution by HardCase · · Score: 3, Funny

    There has to be a car analogy somewhere around here...

  4. Re:Antitrust? by rkanodia · · Score: 3, Funny

    Welcome to the new capitalism. What's mine is mine. What's yours is mine. If you attempt to stop me from taking back the things of mine, which you have had the sheer gall to put in your own possession after doing nothing but think them up with your own mind and create them with your own effort, I'll sue your ass.

  5. Re:Violates Anti-Trust?? by oliderid · · Score: 3, Funny
    GPL can create a mega-corporation the same way as USSR created a mega-corporation out of itself (although it was supposed to be people's property).

    Ahhh...Following the book : History for geeks
    You couldn't fork communism in USSR. They didn't have any upgrade after the 1.917 version...The cosmetic changes of the 1.922 aren't worth to remember and they didn't last anyway. The massive refactoring of Stalin didn't help either. Khrushchev tried extreme programming with the cuba crisis and some clever UI interface codename sputnik...The marketing department (called politburo) ruined all his efforts few years after. In the end Gorbatchev had to sold out the assets.
    As you see this is totally different from GPL. You can fork application since the beginning of GPL. See Emacs vs Xmacs.
    (I love Slashdot probably the only place on earth where GPL can be seriously compared with communism.)