Re: Use of GPL'd code with proprietary programs

[David Kastrup]

Alexander Terekhov <terekhov@web.de> writes:

> Rui Miguel Seabra wrote:
> [...]
>> No. Justice in Europe is a bit slower than in the USA, that's why you
>> have court orders to help prevent the potential damage.
>> 
>> It is totally to the judge's reasoning to decide which side *could* be
>> right on a first look basis, and then decide wether to issue a court
>> order.
>> 
>> I'd like to believe judges don't do this lightheaded, but your mileage
>> might vary 'lex, since you seem to show much contempt against so many
>> judges by painting them as drunken, and such.
>
> http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/resources/feedback/OIIFB_GPL3_20040903.pdf
> (The first-ever ruling on the legal validity of the GPL - A Critique 
>  of the Case By Professor Dr Thomas Hoeren, Visiting Fellow at the 
>  Oxford Internet Institute)

Well, this was a preliminary injunction because the party in question
got into compliance afterwards, having no chance to prevail (which is
the main reason why the GPL did not get challenged into court
previously).

After it had been pointed out by the court that their defense was that
they were neither bound by the GPL (which they considered invalid) NOR
by copyright law (which they felt they were somehow free to ignore),
they had no legal strategy left but settling.

Hoeren addresses this only cursorily in the last paragraph, and then
puts up a wrong analogy, one in which copyright law would hold after
all.

-- 
David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum