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Skype Gives Up Anti-GPL Appeal
l2718 writes "Yesterday we discussed Skype's appeal of a German court's ruling against them regarding a violation of the GPL. Harald Welte (the plaintiff) now reports in his blog that following oral argument, Skype decided to drop the appeal and accept the lower court ruling in Weite's favor. More details and analysis at Groklaw. Congratulations to Mr. Welte and GPL-violations.org!"
"To all those who don't like the license: you don't have to use it. Just write your own code. But if you want to use GPL code, the license comes with it. It's a package deal. Thanks."
(which has been oft-said on /.)
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
He's called Harald Welte .
This means that you get to see whatever GPL'd code Skype was using, and if they made changes to that code, they are required to release them as well under the GPL. You don't have access under the GPL to any of their other code that does not meet these conditions.
They took the open moko device and rebranded it as their own which was fair and legal. What they didnt do was make the source code available for those modifications which is required under section 3 of the GPL. They then packeged their item with a link to the source code but that didnt meet the terms of the license as only people with an internet connection can access it (its a skype device so wouldnt they have an internet conenction to A. Order one and B. Use it) They then claimed the GPL license violated anti-trust yesterday before giving up today.
As for how it was discovered i'm not sure. Im guessing that as they complied with the rest of the agreement they left the copyright notice in.
Glorious day
When they supplied a link, it didn't meet the licensing terms because they still didn't notify the receiver of his right to redistribute.
Put identity in the browser.
I don't normally go for those "there, fixed that fer ya" type posts, but it seems to me this is really what you are saying.
You are correct, the result of this decision may be that some people who were using GPL code in violation of the license will no longer do so, just as the announcement of Microsoft going after companies using unlicensed copies of their software may have a similar effect. How you feel about that really depends on how you feel about copyright in general.
I don't care why you're posting AC
After they got caught out, it went to court.
After some months toing and froing, Skype lost a lower court settlement.
Skype took it to a higher court.
Later that day, the appeals judge slaps them down, hard.
The next day, Skype drops the case.
Fixed that for you.
IANAL, but I'll take a crack at that.
In the US, whatever you create is copyrighted by default. I believe it is easier to defend if you take the step of registering it, but as far as I know simply putting a copyright notice on it is sufficient. So I couldn't come along and take the code you published and use it in a project I intend to distribute without getting your permission.
"Getting your permission" is what abiding by the GPL amounts to. It says "this code is copyrighted. You may not redistribute it unless you agree to these terms
Unlike Microsoft-style EULAs, the GPL (as far as I know) does not have to be accepted by the user, as it really has nothing to do with the user (despite the fact that a lot of software out there makes you "accept" the GPL before installing it). You don't need to agree to anything to use emacs to write your novel, but if you want to include it in a software distribution, or use the source code within a project you are developing yourself, you need to get the permission of the copyright holder and agree to his terms. That means abiding by the GPL.
I don't care why you're posting AC
The code in question is the Linux Kernel. So the penguin and the gnu are both relevant.