Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: December 11, 2007 3:52:07 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Open source software developers sue Verizon;  
Claim FiOS violates GPL

Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL
Information Week
By Paul McDougall

In what could become a major test case for the most widely used open  
source software license, a group that represents open source  
developers has sued Verizon Communications -- claiming that the  
telecom giant's FiOS broadband service violates the terms of the GNU  
General Public License.

In court papers filed Friday, The Software Freedom Law Center  
maintains Verizon's use of an open source program called BusyBox in  
FiOS violates version 2 the GPL because Verizon has not made the  
product's source code available to its customers--as the license  
requires.

Since November 2006, "Verizon has distributed to the public copies of  
the firmware in the infringing product, and none of these  
distributions included source code to BusyBox or offers to provide  
such code," SFLC alleges in its complaint, which was filed in federal  
court in New York.

<http://www.informationweek.com/shared/printableArticle.jhtml?articleID=204800422 
>


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