Court Case To Test GNU GPL

ciaran_o_riordan writes "Tomorrow, a German court will hear the case of AVM, a distributor of Linux-based routers, which seeks to block Cybits from distributing software that modifies the routers' software to add content-filtering functionality. Free Software Foundation Europe explains: 'AVM justified its position using three arguments. First, they stated that their whole product software must be regarded as an entity under AVM copyright, and that this entity must not be modified. The position Mr. Welte [founder of gpl-violations.org and copyright holder of several parts of the Linux kernel] took was that the whole product software would in that case be a derivative work according to the GPL, and thus the whole product software should be licensed under the GNU GPL. AVM then switched to a second argument: that the software embedded on its DSL terminals consisted of several parts. According to Mr. Welte, AVM could then not prohibit anyone from modifying or distributing the GPL licensed software parts. The final argument by AVM was that the software on their DSL terminals is a composition of several different programs, which, due to the creative process, would be a protected compilation and thus under the copyright of AVM and not affected by the copyleft of the GPL.'"

Comments

Ethically and intellectually challenged...

[pieterh]

I've been making my software GPLd since 1991. If someone uses it, for free, and makes a derived work, and then tries to stop others from sharing that work, they are ethically and intellectually challenged.

This is not a test case for the GPL, it's a straight-forward copyright violation case, where AVM is taking the work of tens of thousands of people, using it under a license that permits remixing, and then attempting to ignore those license conditions.

Take them to the cleaners, Harald!

Re:Ethically and intellectually challenged...

[tomhudson]

ethically and intellectually challenged.

No. Their ethics may conflict with yours and nothing can be said about their intelligence.

On the topic of ethics, they are more than just "ethically challenged" - they're hypocrites and crooks. Hypocrites, because they are saying "do as I say, not as I do" with respect to software licensing, and crooks because they are selling other people's work as if it were their own and without their permission (if you don't agree to the terms of the GPL, you cannot redistribute).

Intellectually challenged? They're wasting money on a lost cause. Not smart ... :-)

Re:Ethically and intellectually challenged...

[VGPowerlord]

What if you consider the GPL unethical?

Then don't redistribute software that is GPL-licensed.

What if you consider that might makes right?

Then the courts will properly and forcefully correct you and bar the distribution of your products until you comply with the license you accepted or make a new version that doesn't use someone else's work.

To imply that not following a software licence is unethical per se suggests a worrying level of conformity.

It's not like someone told them "YOU MUST USE LINUX ON YOUR ROUTER OR I'LL KILL YOU." The consciously made the choice to use Linux in their router system, and are now breaking its license terms.

They could just as easily gone with a BSD, or paid money to someone to license a commercial OS, or designed their own OS. They chose to do none of the above, and are thus bound by the GPLv2.

Re:Ethically and intellectually challenged...

[Anonymous Coward]

"But... but... Slashdot told me that information wants to be freeeeee!!!!! The GPL is just a mechanism for protecting imaginary property with the threat of violence via government thugs, right?"

Exactly. Yes.

And as long as the rest of society act like an asshole with regards of "intellectual propriety", that's the right thing to be done.

I hope for a world where GPL becomes a stupid nonsense. In the meantime, I'm glad for GPL to exist.

Ethically OR intellectually challenged.

[kerobaros]

I think he's half right. Either the company is intelligent yet ethically challenged, in that they know that they are violating the GPL yet do not care, or they are ethically sound but intellectually challenged, in that they don't know they're controverting the license. I believe one of these scenarios is the case.

Re:Why does AVM have a problem in the first place?

[Ruzty]

Because AVM sells other products, at a higher price/profit, which contain those additional features. They want to protect their revenue stream.