Volume V

Issue : 15: September 27, 2007

• Belgium Gaming Commission Files Complaint Against Online Political Gambling
• Google Accused of Misleading Web Users About Sponsored Links
• New Open Access Policy Introduced for Published Health Research
• Man Faces 20 Year Imprisonment for False Threats Over Domain Names
• Chinese Woman Faces Legal Action From eu Authorities
• US Copyright Action Launched Over Open Source Breach
• Class Action Suit Alleges that Cable Channel Bundling Violates Antitrust Laws
• Facebook Alleged to Cost Economy Millions
• SCO Group, Thorn to Linux, Seeks Bankruptcy Protection

Home > Volume V > Issue 15: September 27, 2007 > US Copyright Action Launched Over Open Source Breach

US Copyright Action Launched Over Open Source Breach

The Software Freedom Law Center has filed a copyright action for infringement of the GNU General Public License (“GPL”).

The lawsuit involves a set of UNIX utilities called “BusyBox”, which is open source software licenced under the GPL. The GPL requires that redistributors of licenced software (in either original or modified form) ensure that every downstream recipient of the software has access to the corresponding source code.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of BusyBox’s principal developers against Monsoon Multimedia, whose products apparently contain BusyBox, but which does not provide access to its source code.

The Software Freedom Law Center says that this is the first such lawsuit to enforce an open source licence. The case, if it goes forward, could therefore be precedent-setting.

For a copy of the complaint, visit:

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/sep/20/busybox/complaint.pdf