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Lawsuit Charges Open-Source License Violation ( Busybox sues Monsoon Multimedia Inc.)
PC World ^ | Friday, September 21, 2007 7:00 AM PDT | Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

Posted on 09/21/2007 9:11:32 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach

In what may be the first action of its kind in the U.S., a lawsuit has been filed to enforce an open-source license.

In what may be the first action of its kind in the U.S., the Software Freedom Law Center has filed a lawsuit to enforce an open-source license.

The SFLC filed the suit on Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Monsoon Multimedia Inc., on behalf of the developers of BusyBox, Erik Andersen and Rob Landley. The suit charges Monsoon with using BusyBox under the GNU General Public License version 2 but failing to publish its source code. Under the terms of the license, distributors of software that uses the licensed software must make their source code available. Failing to do so is considered copyright infringement.

BusyBox, members of the public and the SFLC legal team notified Monsoon of its responsibilities, but Monsoon has not yet published the code, said Dan Ravicher, legal director at SFLC. While it's relatively common for licensees to neglect to share their code, parties typically work through the issue without having to go to court, he said.

This case is a last resort after Monsoon failed to rectify the situation, he said. The suit is necessary because from a legal perspective, copyright owners can start to lose rights if they don't act to protect them, he said.

BusyBox is a lightweight set of Unix utilities used in embedded systems. Monsoon develops digital video products, including a Slingbox-like device that enables remote TV viewing.

(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Computers/Internet
KEYWORDS: oss
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To: Golden Eagle
Hopefully the contractual elements of his tricky license which he calls “copyleft” verses normal “copyright” will be deemed as unlawful without getting signatures on the dotted line.

I didn't sign for the license for thousands of dollars of software I've bought. Does that mean I'm free to do whatever I want?

In any case, you are missing a BIG concept here. Let's say that a judge tosses out the ENTIRE GPL in this case, the whole thing is declared unenforceable. Where does this leave the company?

It leaves them distributing copyrighted works without a license.

61 posted on 09/21/2007 3:31:05 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: antiRepublicrat; Golden Eagle
It leaves them distributing copyrighted works without a license.

Doesn't matter to Golden Eagle -- he's made it pretty clear that it's OK by him to steal other people's work if he doesn't like those people.

62 posted on 09/21/2007 3:34:07 PM PDT by kevkrom (The religion of global warming: "There is no goddess but Gaia and Al Gore is her profit.")
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To: N3WBI3
“23. that may be used by or is open to all”

That's the perfect definition. The catch in the GPL, MPL and CDDL is that the original work must remain free to be used by and open to all. In contrast, BSD works can be made closed, and thus no longer free.

63 posted on 09/21/2007 3:36:24 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Golden Eagle
Someone else who never gave theirs away as "free".

This company doesn't have to publish its code under the GPL. However, doing so will likely be a much cheaper option than a court injunction to cease infringement that would probably kill the business.

64 posted on 09/21/2007 3:41:50 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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To: Golden Eagle

So let me get this straight you think developers should spend copious time doing research to make sure they are not violating patents but not take the time to read a license?


65 posted on 09/21/2007 3:53:30 PM PDT by N3WBI3 (Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak....)
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To: antiRepublicrat

I already told you on another thread I won’t respond to you as it took you months before you finally admitted to knowingly making up lies in defense of the Russian hackers who cracked Apple’s Unix, nor should anyone else. Maybe someone else is interested in your comments but based on the history of dishonesty I’m not wasting my time on them.


66 posted on 09/21/2007 4:19:15 PM PDT by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
Maybe someone else is interested in your comments but based on the history of dishonesty

History of dishonesty? I have at least ten links to proven lies of yours.

Don't post unless you're willing to defend your arguments based on the facts.

67 posted on 09/21/2007 5:12:06 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
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