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Re: The GPL is unenforceable under U.S. copyright law


From: amicus_curious
Subject: Re: The GPL is unenforceable under U.S. copyright law
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:35:50 -0400


"Hyman Rosen" <hyrosen@mail.com> wrote in message news:M6Tvl.166850$6r1.10012@newsfe19.iad...
amicus_curious wrote:
The SFLC then filed a dismissal and nothing happened to Verizon.

Incorrect. Verizon chose to comply with the GPL, through the agency
of its router manufacturer.

The manual for Verizon's FiOS router, branded with Verizon and its
logo on the cover, can be found here:
<http://support.actiontec.com/doc_files/MI424WR_Rev._E_User_Manual_20.8.0_v3.pdf>
On page 204, it now says
    C.4 GPL (General Public License)
    This product includes software code developed by third parties,
    including software code subject to the enclosed GNU General Public
    License (GPL) or GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The GPL
    Code and LGPL Code used in this product are distributed WITHOUT ANY
    WARRANTY and are subject to the copyrights of the authors, and to
    the terms of the applicable licenses included in the download. For
    details, see the GPL Code and LGPL Code for this product and the
    terms of the GPL and the LGPL, which are available on the enclosed
    product disk and can be accessed by inserting the disk into your
    CD-ROM drive and opening the “GPL.exe” file.

The router manufacturer, Actiontec, now displays a link on its support page labeled "GPL Code Download Center" leading to <http://opensource.actiontec.com/> where the GPLed sources can be downloaded under the image of a smiling gnu and
penguin and a reversed copyright symbol.

When the result of a GPL enforcement action is GPL compliance, we call that
"victory".

When none of the elements of a lawsuit are attained, I call that a loss. Verizon thumbed their noses at the GPL and nothing happened to them.


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