The Software Freedom Law Center has filed a lawsuit to enforce an open-source license. The suit charges Monsoon with using BusyBox under the GNU General Public License version 2 but failing to publish its source code. Under the terms of the license, distributors of software that uses the licensed software must make their source code available. Failing to do so is considered copyright infringement.
This case is a last resort after Monsoon failed to rectify the situation, he said. The suit is necessary because from a legal perspective, copyright owners can start to lose rights if they don't act to protect them, Dan Ravicher, legal director at SFLC, said.
Monsoon develops digital video products, including a device that enables remote TV viewing.
The GPL Violations Project is a group that actively pursues license violators and has brought at least one case to court in Germany. Earlier this year, one of the project's team members publicly revealed violations that Cisco Systems Inc. made in its phone previously called the iPhone. Cisco subsequently corrected the problem.
More information;
On Behalf of BusyBox Developers, SFLC Files First Ever U.S. GPL Violation Lawsuit
HAVA thread related to the same issue.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
SFLC files a lawsuit against Monsoon Multimedia Inc., on behalf of the developers of BusyBox, Erik Andersen and Rob Landley.
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