451 CAOS Theory 
A blog for the enterprise open source community
Latest GPL lawsuit aims at Verizon
Jay Lyman, December 7, 2007 @ 5:13 pm ETIt’s been a busy few months for the Software Freedom Law Center and the BusyBox open source software developers it represents. The SFLC just filed another GPL-based lawsuit, making it the fourth such U.S. court action in as many months. There’s a significant difference this time: the alleged GPL violator is major U.S. wireless and telecom carrier Verizon.
Similar to previous cases, two of which are ongoing and another that was settled, the SFLC alleges Verizon has incorporated BusyBox, a GPL set of Unix tools, in its wireless routers and Internet TV service FiOS without providing source code as required. In its lawsuit, the SFLC says despite its contact with the carrier, Verizon has continued its distribution of BusyBox software without source code.
Verizon is the provider of a fiber-optic Internet and television service called FiOS. Verizon distributes Actiontec MI424WR wireless routers to FiOS customers. This router contains BusyBox, and under the terms of the GPL, Verizon is obligated to provide the source code of BusyBox to recipients of the device. According to the lawsuit, Verizon continues to distribute BusyBox illegally without source code, despite having been contacted by SFLC.
I’ve already written about how these GPL lawsuits bolster the open source license. It seems the ante continues to get raised and now, with Verizon involved, the GPL and open source will get even more attention and, most likely in the end, credibility. I would bet Verizon will wisely choose to comply and settle and while some would be happy to see a GPL case hit the U.S. courts, the recognition of GPL’s legitimacy keeps on coming.
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These law suits do not bolster the GPL. They bolster BusyBox. That’s it. And one of these days, SFLC is going to get its butt kicked by one of its targets. Maybe it will be Verizon. And maybe the GPL is going to get thrown out. So, Jay buddy, don’t go getting ahead of yourself. There are a lot of lawyers in the world. The best ones don’t work for SFLC.
Thanks for the post, Roger. First off, if these suits are bolstering BusyBox, then I would argue they are bolstering the GPL. How many folks had even heard of BusyBox a year ago? Now, it is the poster child for GPL enforcement, and it has also become synonymous with GPL.
You could be right about SFLC losing, but I think the group and many other open source advocates would be happy to get the chance to present their case and possibly score GPL precedent in U.S, court, similar to what happened in Germany with Skype and D-Link.
However, I doubt the SFLC would bring a suit it wasn’t confident it could win. Furthermore, even if SFLC got its ‘butt kicked,’ that’s a far cry from GPL getting thrown out or invalidated. For that to happen, the courts would have to in some way subscribe to abolishing U.S. copyright law, which is much of the basis for GPL. I don’t see that happening, regardless of how many lawyers there are in the world.
JL
It must be confortable cruising along with the consensus Jay. But I don’t think people need another mouthpiece for some less-than-transparent benefactor or a myna bird for the open source community like most of the other open source bloggers. I know. Everyone is afraid to invoke the wrath of the community by criticising anything to do with Mr. bad ass of FOSS, Stallman. Everyone is afraid except Torvalds that is. Why don’t you ask him if he wants to enforce the GPL against some box makers? He’s got about 1000 percent more clout than Stallman and the SFLC. Just be careful though, you might accidently discover a real story about the Linux Foundation under Cohen encouraging the SFLC’s litigation behavior, since they pumped $4 million or so into it. Guess that’s the story no one ever had the nerve to tell. Must break Torvalds heart to see so many conspirators around him hankering for the huge piece of change he’s left on the table. If only he was more mercenary they could all have a nicer car and bigger house. Too bad. It must give all those lawyers and merchants fits at night dreaming about it.
Seems to me Linus Torvalds is one of the biggest supporters of the GPL. He may prefer v2 to v3, but I doubt he would want to see either license weakened. No, I think Linus would want the license that covers Linux to be strengthened, which it has. The Verizon suit has been settled, so it doesn’t look like the GPL will be ‘thrown out.’
Lastly, the consensus seemed to be that this Verizon suit would take longer, get dragged out, be challenged in court, etc. As explained more recently, I actually thought Verizon would settle. They did.
JL
[...] the GPL-licensed BusyBox software. That remaining one is a biggie, U.S. telecom and wireless giant Verizon. While the settlements so far should serve to bolster the GPL in general, Verizon is one company [...]