On Thursday, BusyBox, through the Software Freedom Law Center ("SFLC") filed a new lawsuit to enforce the General Public License ("GPL"). The lawsuit claims that Verizon used BusyBox software in one of its routers without complying with the GPL. This lawsuit is the fourth filed by the SFLC in the last two months and confirms that the trend that I mentioned in my earlier post http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2007/11/software-freedom-law-center-files.html. SFLC appears to be taking a much more aggressive approach by filing lawsuits within weeks of the original demand letter. In this case, SFLC states that they gave notice to Verizon on November 16 and filed suit on December 5. The allegations in this suit are similar to the earlier complaints. However, this lawsuit is the first against a company of substantial size.
Companies should review their use of BusyBox software which is the basis for these claims and should be prepared to respond quickly to demand letters from the SFLC.
Showing posts with label software freedom law center. Show all posts
Showing posts with label software freedom law center. Show all posts
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Software Freedom Law Center Files Second Round of Enforcement Actions for BusyBox Software
The Software Freedom Law Center ("SFLC") has filed a second round of lawsuits to enforce the General Public License ("GPL") for BusyBox software last week. The suits were filed against two different companies: High Gain Antennas, LLC ("High Gain") and Xterasys Corporation ("Xterasys"). As in the Monsoon Media case, the suits are based on the failure to make the source code of the BusyBox software available as required under the GPL.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, the SFLC is much more willing to bring a lawsuit than in the past http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2007/11/monsoon-media-lessons-for-foss.html. In past years, SFLC stated that they were involved in up to 50 enforcement actions a year, but never filed a lawsuit. In some cases, they also appear to be moving very rapidly to file such lawsuits: the suit against High Gain was filed on November 20 after an unsatisfactory response from High Gain on November 19 (however, according to the complaint, High Gain had received notice of the requirement to provide source code in August 2006 from a third party, but the source of this notice is not made clear). On the other hand, the initial notice by the SFLC to Xterasys was on May 23, 2007 and Xterasys responded on the same day. The last contact was on May 24, 2007 when SFLC reminded Xterasys to keep them informed of the results of the investigation. However, Xterasys did not further communicate with SFLC.
SLFC consistently takes the position that the failure to comply with all of the terms of the GPL "terminates" the permission in the license and the licensee becomes a copyright infringer. However as in Jacobsen, a court might decide that the failure to provide the source code is a breach of contract (which has a different set of remedies, generally limited to monetary damages) rather than copyright infringement http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-open-source-legal-decision-jacobsen.html. Please note that the SFLC and the Free Software Foundation have consistently taken the position that the GPL is not a contract, but I believe that this position is difficult to defend. In any case, I believe that the Jacobsen decision is wrong and the GPL is a very different license from the Artistic License. Yet this question of remedies remains open and depends on the exact terms of the license.
The clear lesson from these suits is to respond quickly if SLFC contacts your company and try to resolve the issue promptly.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, the SFLC is much more willing to bring a lawsuit than in the past http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2007/11/monsoon-media-lessons-for-foss.html. In past years, SFLC stated that they were involved in up to 50 enforcement actions a year, but never filed a lawsuit. In some cases, they also appear to be moving very rapidly to file such lawsuits: the suit against High Gain was filed on November 20 after an unsatisfactory response from High Gain on November 19 (however, according to the complaint, High Gain had received notice of the requirement to provide source code in August 2006 from a third party, but the source of this notice is not made clear). On the other hand, the initial notice by the SFLC to Xterasys was on May 23, 2007 and Xterasys responded on the same day. The last contact was on May 24, 2007 when SFLC reminded Xterasys to keep them informed of the results of the investigation. However, Xterasys did not further communicate with SFLC.
SLFC consistently takes the position that the failure to comply with all of the terms of the GPL "terminates" the permission in the license and the licensee becomes a copyright infringer. However as in Jacobsen, a court might decide that the failure to provide the source code is a breach of contract (which has a different set of remedies, generally limited to monetary damages) rather than copyright infringement http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2007/08/new-open-source-legal-decision-jacobsen.html. Please note that the SFLC and the Free Software Foundation have consistently taken the position that the GPL is not a contract, but I believe that this position is difficult to defend. In any case, I believe that the Jacobsen decision is wrong and the GPL is a very different license from the Artistic License. Yet this question of remedies remains open and depends on the exact terms of the license.
The clear lesson from these suits is to respond quickly if SLFC contacts your company and try to resolve the issue promptly.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Software Freedom Law Center Files First Enforcement Action for General Public License
On September 20, the Software Freedom Law Center has filed the first lawsuit to enforce the General Public License version 2 in the United States ("GPLv2"). The GPLv2 continues to be the most widely used open source license: more than 65% of the projects on SourceForge use it.
The plaintiffs, Erik Andersen and Rob Landley, sued Monsoon Multimedia, Inc. for copyright infringement of the BusyBox software in the Southern District of New York. The complaint can be found at http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/sep/20/busybox/complaint.pdf. The plaintiffs allege that Monsoon Multimedia distributed their program as part of their firmware, but did not make the source code available.
This case is very important because it will establish what type of remedies (either contract or copyright) are available to licensors for breach of the GPLv2. The Free Software Foundation has consistantly taken the position that the GPLv2 is a copyright license rather than a contract and that the failure to comply with its terms results in copyright infringement.
I don't agree with the view that the GPLv2 is not a contract (see below for the significance of this distinction), because the GPLv2 includes many provisions such as a disclaimer of warranty which are characteristic of "contracts" for the sale of goods under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. This distinction could be important as illustrated in the recent decision in Jacobsen (see above) which provided that the remedy for the breach of the Artistic License was in contract (i.e. monetary damages) and not copyright infringement. The major difference in remedies is that contract remedies are generally monetary damages, but copyright remedies are generally injunctive relief (the court orders a party to do something) as well as monetary damages. Clearly, open source licensors would prefer to obtain injunctive relief to require the licensee to comply with the terms of the license.
However, the court's decision on remedies will not turn solely on whether the GPLv2 is a copyright license or a contract: even if the court finds that the GPLv2 is a "contract", it could also find that the breach of the GPLv2 results in copyright infringement (see the Jacobsen case blog for an explanation of this issue). The GPLv2 is very different from the Artistic License so the reasoning in the Jacobsen case may not apply. However, courts are very influenced by the decisions of other courts in new areas which is why the wrong decision in the Jacobsen case is so important.
Stay tuned, this case will be very important for the future of open source software.
The plaintiffs, Erik Andersen and Rob Landley, sued Monsoon Multimedia, Inc. for copyright infringement of the BusyBox software in the Southern District of New York. The complaint can be found at http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/sep/20/busybox/complaint.pdf. The plaintiffs allege that Monsoon Multimedia distributed their program as part of their firmware, but did not make the source code available.
This case is very important because it will establish what type of remedies (either contract or copyright) are available to licensors for breach of the GPLv2. The Free Software Foundation has consistantly taken the position that the GPLv2 is a copyright license rather than a contract and that the failure to comply with its terms results in copyright infringement.
I don't agree with the view that the GPLv2 is not a contract (see below for the significance of this distinction), because the GPLv2 includes many provisions such as a disclaimer of warranty which are characteristic of "contracts" for the sale of goods under Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. This distinction could be important as illustrated in the recent decision in Jacobsen (see above) which provided that the remedy for the breach of the Artistic License was in contract (i.e. monetary damages) and not copyright infringement. The major difference in remedies is that contract remedies are generally monetary damages, but copyright remedies are generally injunctive relief (the court orders a party to do something) as well as monetary damages. Clearly, open source licensors would prefer to obtain injunctive relief to require the licensee to comply with the terms of the license.
However, the court's decision on remedies will not turn solely on whether the GPLv2 is a copyright license or a contract: even if the court finds that the GPLv2 is a "contract", it could also find that the breach of the GPLv2 results in copyright infringement (see the Jacobsen case blog for an explanation of this issue). The GPLv2 is very different from the Artistic License so the reasoning in the Jacobsen case may not apply. However, courts are very influenced by the decisions of other courts in new areas which is why the wrong decision in the Jacobsen case is so important.
Stay tuned, this case will be very important for the future of open source software.
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