Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Software Freedom Conservancy Wins GPL Case Against Westinghouse

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the do-the-dance-of-joy dept.

fishthegeek writes "The Software Freedom Conservancy has received a judgement against Westinghouse Digital Electronics for $90,000 in damages, $50,000 in costs plus a donation of all of the offending HDTV's that were using BusyBox in violation of the GPL. Given that WDE is nearly bankrupt it's likely that most if not all of the cash will disappear in a legal 'poof,' but it is a victory regardless."

3 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not what it seems by Java+Pimp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In many senses it was a "win by default" - it was unchallenged, they couldn't afford to challenge it...

    How typical... He with the most money wins! God our justice system needs an overhaul!

    Oh wait... we won... nevermind!

    --
    Ascalante: Your bride is over 3,000 years old.
    Kull: She told me she was 19!
  2. Re:Correct me if I'm wrong by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It would've been pretty easy to fully comply with the GPL in this situation without giving anything of substance away to competitors.

    There's no reason to be afraid of using GPLed code as long as you actually READ THE DAMN LICENSE and comply. For something like busybox there is almost no one who would suffer any competitive disadvantage by publishing the source code for the GPL software used in compliance with the license, and a pretty good market advantage (don't have to develop any of the basic functions busybox provides, so you can focus on developing the product-specific functionality).

    --
    retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  3. Re:Confused by Chibi+Merrow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but it gives freedom to users that the BSD license does not.

    Or, you could say, it TAKES freedom from users (ie: developers using a library) that the BSD license does not.

    Not saying BSD is better, just saying GPL doesn't give "more freedoms" on a whole, it just assigns them to different people.

    --
    Maxim: People cannot follow directions.
    Increases in truth directly with the length of time spent explaining them