Will we Ever Have a GPL Test Case?
The GNU General Public License is nearly 20 years old (version 1 came out in 1989). In that time there have been at least 100 million lawsuits filed in the US (and that's a conservative estimate). Amazingly enough, not one of those millions of court cases has actually tested the GPL's validity. How can that be - and is it a problem for the open source software movement?
In recent years, the Software Freedom Law Center has brought legal action on behalf of developers using the GPL for their products a number of times. They've sued on behalf of the developers of BusyBox, whose use as an embedded shell seems to make it particularly attractive to those who would ignore the license terms.
The most recent of these cases, against telecommunications giant Verizon was settled (as we reported) out of court.
- Login or register to post comments
- Printer-friendly version
- 1638 reads
- PDF version
More in Tux Machines
- Highlights
- Front Page
- Latest Headlines
- Archive
- Recent comments
- All-Time Popular Stories
- Hot Topics
- New Members
digiKam 7.7.0 is releasedAfter three months of active maintenance and another bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.7.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release. |
Dilution and Misuse of the "Linux" Brand
|
Samsung, Red Hat to Work on Linux Drivers for Future TechThe metaverse is expected to uproot system design as we know it, and Samsung is one of many hardware vendors re-imagining data center infrastructure in preparation for a parallel 3D world. Samsung is working on new memory technologies that provide faster bandwidth inside hardware for data to travel between CPUs, storage and other computing resources. The company also announced it was partnering with Red Hat to ensure these technologies have Linux compatibility. |
today's howtos
|
FUD
I keep seeing this FUD, also in 451 Group Blog recently.
The GPL has already won.
Not in the US. Planet Earth != USA.