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. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss
