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WURFL Founders Fire Off DMCA Takedown Against Fork

Posted by Unknown on from the we-didn't-mean-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "ScientiaMobile, the company formed behind the open source library WURFL, an API used to do mobile device detection for web applications, has issued a DMCA takedown notice against the OpenDDR project on Github. ScientiaMobile claims that OpenDDR is 'ripping them off' by forking their database, which used to be licensed under a liberal license. Newer versions of the device database are licensed under restrictive licenses which do not allow any modification or redistribution."

8 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Again by Squiddie · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just another example of the blatant abuse that is possible with these laws. SOPA will only make it worse if it passes.

    1. Re:Again by icebraining · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, the problem is that the law permits unsupervised takedowns.

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    2. Re:Again by DarkOx · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It will be the enforcement though:

      Lets try a little thought experiment.
      What happens under the SOPA when say Me (a nobody) has a little GPL app on their personal domain, that either $BIGMEDIA_GUY (where say Sony or Disney would be compatible types ) thinks infringes on their property or could be used to do so?

      My guess is that my domain is yanked so fast my head spins and I can either drop the matter or spend years fighting in court to get it back.

      Now lets say I think $BIGMEDIA_GUY is using my code and not complying with the GPL and lets assume I have some evidence like hey the device behaves in this out of spec way exactly my code does or something. Now I present this to ICE or FTC or whoever is supposed to be enforcing this thing. Do you think BIGMEDIA_GUY is going to see their domain yanked?

      I don't...

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      Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
    3. Re:Again by Hatta · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is the copyright claim, not the enforcement.

      The problem is that enforcement occurs before the validity of the copyright claim is established.

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      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    4. Re:Again by sjames · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is it doesn't make copyright more enforceable. It just strips out due process to make enforcement faster and abuse becomes much easier. It also becomes a lot harder to prevent or reverse abuse.

    5. Re:Again by Dog-Cow · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Here's the problem. You are living in a world of theory. My GP is living in this world. Most GPL software has no money behind it. Trying to use SOPA against Sony or Disney will fail completely if they "borrow" some code off of github. They wouldn't go against IBM or Google, but they will feel no compunction against violating copyright of some dinky little project on github or sourceforge. Remember, laws are not enforced those who bought the laws.

  2. Success by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So it's like this,

    When the software is born look look at us, help our community were are open source blah blah blah.

    Suddenly the cow fattens , Oh no this is proprietary code blah blah yes open source , but our work business model etc.

    Seen this movie a lot of times, sadly

  3. Not being ripped off at all... by MrWeelson · · Score: 5, Informative

    From http://openddr.org/takedown.html, the original file had terms of use as below
    Seems clear to me - as long as OpenDDR are making public any changes.

    "All the information listed here has been collected by many different people from many different
              countries. You are allowed to use WURFL in any of your applications, free or commercial. The only thing required is to make public any
              modification to this file, following the original spirit and idea of the creators of this project."