Are there any places where Sugar is in violation of its licenses? -walter
On Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 2:14 PM, John Gilmore <[email protected]> wrote: > OLPC is at risk of similar action unless it gets its act together. > The project and its customers have skated by on GPL compliance, > figuring that we're the good guys, and make halfhearted attempts every > once in a while, so we won't get sued. That didn't work for Cisco. > Even a public *allegation* by FSF that OLPC is not compliant would > have an effect similar to the "We're going Microsoft" debacle, further > alienating the free software development community who OLPC depends > deeply upon. OLPC has, by distributing binaries under DRM, without > source code, and with minimal notice, hung a sword over its head that > just about anybody could unleash. > > John > > From: Brett Smith <[email protected]> > To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] > Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2008 12:10:50 -0500 > List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/info-gnu> > > ## Free Software Foundation Files Suit Against Cisco For GPL Violations > > BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, December 11, 2008 -- The Free > Software Foundation (FSF) today announced that it has filed a > copyright infringement lawsuit against Cisco. The FSF's complaint > alleges that in the course of distributing various products under the > Linksys brand Cisco has violated the licenses of many programs on > which the FSF holds copyright, including GCC, binutils, and the GNU C > Library. In doing so, Cisco has denied its users their right to share > and modify the software. > > Most of these programs are licensed under the GNU General Public > License (GPL), and the rest are under the GNU Lesser General Public > License (LGPL). Both these licenses encourage everyone, including > companies like Cisco, to modify the software as they see fit and then > share it with others, under certain conditions. One of those > conditions says that anyone who redistributes the software must also > provide their recipients with the source code to that program. The > FSF has documented many instances where Cisco has distributed licensed > software but failed to provide its customers with the corresponding > source code. > > "Our licenses are designed to ensure that everyone who uses the > software can change it," said Richard Stallman, president and founder > of the FSF. "In order to exercise that right, people need the source > code, and that's why our licenses require distributors to provide it. > We are enforcing our licenses to protect the rights that everyone > should have with all software: to use it, share it, and modify it as > they see fit." > > "We began working with Cisco in 2003 to help them establish a process > for complying with our software licenses, and the initial changes were > very promising," explained Brett Smith, licensing compliance engineer > at the FSF. "Unfortunately, they never put in the effort that was > necessary to finish the process, and now five years later we have > still not seen a plan for compliance. As a result, we believe that > legal action is the best way to restore the rights we grant to all > users of our software." > > "Free software developers entrust their copyrights to the FSF so we > can make sure that their work is always redistributed in ways that > respect user freedom," said Peter Brown, executive director of the > FSF. "In the fifteen years we've spent enforcing our licenses, we've > never gone to court before. We have always managed to get the > companies we have worked with to take their obligations seriously. But > at the end of the day, we're also willing to take the legal action > necessary to ensure users have the rights that our licenses > guarantee." > > The complaint was filed this morning in United States District Court > for the Southern District of New York by the Software Freedom Law > Center, which is providing representation to the FSF in this case. > The case is number 08-CV-10764 and will be heard by Judge Paul > G. Gardephe. A copy of the complaint is available at > <http://www.fsf.org/licensing/complaint-2008-12-11.pdf>. > > ### About the FSF > > The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to > promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and > redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and > use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating > system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free > software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and > political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, > located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information > about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at > <http://donate.fsf.org>. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA. > > ### About the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) > > The GNU General Public License (GPL) is a license for software. When > a program is released under its terms, every user will have the > freedom to share and change it, no matter how they get it. The GPL is > the most popular free software license in the world, used by almost > three quarters of all free software packages. The FSF recently > updated the license to address new concerns in the free software > community; version 3 of the GPL (GPLv3) was released on June 29, 2007. > > ### About the GNU Operating System and Linux > > Richard Stallman announced in September 1983 the plan to develop a > free software Unix-like operating system called GNU. GNU is the only > operating system developed specifically for the sake of users' > freedom. See <http://www.gnu.org/gnu/the-gnu-project.html>. > > In 1992, the essential components of GNU were complete, except for > one, the kernel. When in 1992 the kernel Linux was re-released under > the GNU GPL, making it free software, the combination of GNU and Linux > formed a complete free operating system, which made it possible for > the first time to run a PC without non-free software. This combination > is the GNU/Linux system. For more explanation, see > <http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html>. > > ### Media Contacts > > Brett Smith > Licensing Compliance Engineer > Free Software Foundation > +1 (617) 542 5942 x18 > <[email protected]> > > ### > _______________________________________________ > GNU Announcement mailing list <[email protected]> > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gnu > > _______________________________________________ > Devel mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel > -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
