Slashdot Mirror
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.'"
... I hate them.
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?
Before you flame me or mod me down, you might wanna go ahead and think, when was the last time you actually spoke out against the anarchists who howl against the existence of intellectual property in every other case? 'Cause if the answer isn't "within the last week", you're a hypocrite.