Re: The SFLC dismissals should be coming soon

[Hyman Rosen]

On 2/12/2010 9:30 AM, Rex Ballard wrote:
> In the United States, the penalty for violating a copyright license,
> for illegally copying and distribution of software, is $150,000 or up
> to 5 years in federal prison if convicted in a criminal proceeding.

Based on some of the (non-GPL) cases we've seen go by, that
can't really happen. For one thing, it seems that the precise
version being distributed must have been registered with the
copyright office before the infringement occurred in order for
statutory infringement to apply.

Instead, the copyright holder will register the version being
infringed once the infringement is discovered, and then apply
to the court for an injunction to prevent the infringing use,
so that the particular version can no longer be copied and
distributed.

In practice, since these GPL infringements seem to be the result
of inattention and laziness, the simple act of filing the suit
alerts the infringers to the problem and they act to correct it.