The licence allows other people to use source code for free but
imposes certain conditions, including that any subsequent software
made from that code must be available on the same GPL terms as the
original code.
In 2004, a German court ordered a company to stop selling a
wireless router because the company was not complying with the
terms of the GPL. Last week the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC)
started the first US case to test the licence.
The SFLC has sued on behalf of the developers of BusyBox, an
open source project, against Monsoon Multimedia. Monsoon makes time
and place-shifting boxes for television recording and openly
acknowledges using BusyBox in its machines, according to the
lawsuit.
The case argues that Monsoon uses the software but does not make
that software code available to its customers. The GPL says that
anyone is free to use, copy and modify software issued under that
licence, but on the condition that the source code is made
available to users.
The SFLC argues that Monsoon has not made the code available,
and is therefore in breach of the licence. Because it has broken
the licence terms and continues to use the software without
permission, it is infringing copyright, argues the case.
"Under the License, any party that redistributes BusyBox in a
manner that does not comply with the terms of the License
immediately and automatically loses all rights granted under it,"
says the suit. "As such, any rights Defendant may have had under
the License to redistribute BusyBox were automatically terminated
the instant that Defendant made non-compliant distribution of the
Infringing Products or Firmware. Since that time, Defendant has had
no right to distribute BusyBox, or a modified version of BusyBox,
under any circumstances or conditions."
The SFLC is seeking an injunction preventing Monsoon from
copying or distributing the BusyBox software. It is also looking
for any profits made from the infringing sale of the products to be
given to BusyBox, and to have its legal expenses reimbursed.
"We licensed BusyBox under the GPL to give users the freedom to
access and modify its source code," said Erik Andersen, one of the
developers of BusyBox. "If companies will not abide by the fair
terms of our license, then we have no choice but to ask our
attorneys to go to court to force them to do so."
"Free software licences such as the GPL exist to protect the
freedom of computer users," said Eben Moglen, founder of the SFLC.
"If we don't ensure that these licenses are respected, then they
will not be able to achieve their goal. Our goal is simply to
ensure that Monsoon Multimedia complies with the terms of the
GPL."
GPL was originally written by free software advocate Richard
Stallman and Version 2, the subject of the BusyBox lawsuit, is the
same licence that underpins the widely-used Linux open source
operating system.
