Re: As the GPL fades

[RJack]

Ciaran O'Riordan wrote:
> Rubbish.  People have been predicting the death of the GPL for 20
> years, and in 20 years time they'll still be predictig its death.

Despite a concerted web-wide astroturf campaign by Free Softies
predicting the legal enforceability of the GPL in the good old USA,
nothing could be farther from the truth. The SFLC filed seven
consecutive BusyBox lawsuits without the underlying works being
registered with the U.S. Copyright Office -- this fact rendered those
frivolous lawsuits without standing to be heard by a federal court:

"Pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 411(a) as well as its predecessor, § 13, it has
been held repeatedly that ownership of a copyright registration is a
jurisidictional prerequisite to an action for infringement. . . . A
complaint which fails to plead compliance with § 411(a) is defective and
subject to dismissal."; Techniques, Inc. v. Rohn, 592 F.Supp. 1195,
1197; 225 U.S.P.Q. 741 (S.D.N.Y. 1984).

To remedy the standing problem the SFLC plaintiff filed a criminally
fraudulent copyright registration claiming ownership of code he clearly
doesn't own -- just ask Bruce Perens and about twenty other BusyBox
developers.

It would be a breath of fresh air to hear someone like yourself admit
that no lawsuit ever filed by the SFLC has ever made it farther than a
voluntary dismissal by the plaintiffs *and* prior to a federal judge
ever reading a single word of the frivolous Complaint. The idiotic
claims of "victory" that follow these dismissals by the SFLC remind me
of the movie scene in "The Hunt for Red October" where the submarine
Dallas abruptly sounds and a rescued Russian midshipman exclaims, "The
Captain's scared them out of the water!"
http://www.fini.tv/blog/finishing_line_files/a44f9390355368f87dc47b7ec094f93e-36.php

Free Softies have lost all sense of self-respect. I predict the SFLC can
prevent the legal interpretation of the GPL by a federal court for
another twenty years.

Free Softies should try really, really try hard to understand the
principle alluded to in the saying "Bullshit walks and money talks".

Sincerely,
RJack :)