Go GPL!
The GPL has won another victory — its biggest so far. Linux-Watch, in the article “Biggest legal victory ever for GPL“, reports:
The Software Freedom Law Center filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Dec. 6 against Verizon Communications on behalf of its clients, the two principal developers of BusyBox. The suit alleged that Verizon violated the GNU GPLv2 by distributing Actiontec MI424WR wireless routers–which contained unsanctioned GPLv2 code–that were used with Verizon’s fiber-optic Internet and television service, aka FiOS.
On March 17, the SFLC announced that Verizon has come to an agreement with the SFLC and the BusyBox developers, which enables them to dismiss the GPL enforcement lawsuit. BusyBox is a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities commonly used in embedded systems. The popular development tool kit is licensed under GPL. Verizon and Actiontec violated the GPL condition that redistributors of BusyBox are required to ensure that every user of the code, or a device containing the code, must be provided access to the program’s source code.
To date, Verizon is the biggest company to be accused in court of a GPL violation. The fact that the case has ended in a settlement should set a good example for others to follow should they ever find themselves in the same position. Hopefully this will also send a strong signal to those who may think that they can get away with not complying with the terms for using GPLed code.
To learn more about the GPL, its history, and its terms, here are some important resources:
- Here’s the GNU General Public License (GPL) itself: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
- The GNU GPL on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License
- The Open Source Initiative (OSI) page for the GPL: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/gpl-license.php
