Re: Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim FiOS violates GPL

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Andrew C Burnette <acb () acb net>
Date: December 14, 2007 12:04:58 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    Open source software developers sue Verizon;  
Claim FiOS violates GPL

Dave, et al,

Verizon simply has to comply with the law, the GPL and release the
source code. No innovation has been or is stifled at all. Should you
choose to use GPL licensed code to create a new [software] product,
simply follow the rules. In academic circles, using someone else's code
and not referencing the author, well, you get the idea; It's cheating
plain and simple.

Without the legal threat of injunction, Verizon (or Actiontec) would
have no incentive to respond, much less comply. That's where you have to
separate legal tactics from compliance with license requirements of
openly distributed code. I'd hardly expect to hear critical comments if
openbox was a closed source product.

Software can be developed both ways (open v. closed source) effectively.
But to say that misuse of a package under one license and refusal to
comply with said license is stifling innovation doesn't really make much
sense when you look at the facts, does it?

Verizon got caught using a shortcut (someone else's code), and simply
has to own up to it, comply with the GPL, and all is forgiven. plain and
simple.

thx,
andy burnette

David Farber wrote:
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> From: Tom Gray <tom_gray_grc () yahoo com>
> Date: December 12, 2007 3:20:17 PM EST
> To: dave () farber net, tom_gray_grc () yahoo com
> Subject: Re: [IP] Open source software developers sue Verizon; Claim
> FiOS violates GPL
>
> Prof Faber
>
> For your IP list, if you think it suitable.
>
> I wonder if the prolifieration of open source and open
> source law suits will tend to stifle innovation. This
> law suit is looking for an injunction on the use of a
> piece of software. This is the ultimate penalty in
> patent law and one that is not causally given.
>
> Tom Gray
>
>
> --- David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote:
>
> > 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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