[no subject]

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On 4/19/2004 at 11:34 PM Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com> wrote:

>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: [Fwd: [EDRi-forum] Preliminary Injunction for GPL Infringement 
>Granted  byGerman Court]
>Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2004 12:46:35 +0200
>From: Ralf Bendrath <bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
>Reply-To: bendrath at zedat.fu-berlin.de
>To: Declan McCullagh <declan at well.com>
>
>Something for Politech?
>R.
>
>[forwards snipped. --DBM]
>
&gt;&gt; From <a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netfilter.org/news/2004-04-15-sitecom-gpl.html";>http://www.netfilter.org/news/2004-04-15-sitecom-gpl.html</a>
&gt;
&gt;
&gt;Of interest to editors and journalists covering:
&gt;Linux, Free Software, Open Source, Copyright Law
&gt;
&gt;MUNICH COURT GRANTS PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION FOR INFRINGING USE OF GPL
&gt;LICENSED SOFTWARE
&gt;
&gt;BERLIN, Germany - Apr. 14, 2004 -- The Munich district court granted a
&gt;preliminary injuction against Sitecom Germany GmbH
&gt;(<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sitecom.com/";>http://www.sitecom.com/</a>). This injunctive relieve has been applied by
&gt;the
&gt;netfilter/iptables project (<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netfilter.org/";>http://www.netfilter.org/</a>).
&gt;
&gt;Sitecom is offering a wireless access router product (WL-122) based on
&gt;software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL), developed
&gt;by
&gt;the netfilter/iptables project.
&gt;
&gt;The GNU GPL is a license commonly used for many free software projects,
&gt;such
&gt;as the Linux Operating System Kernel.  The GPL licenses software free of
&gt;cost, but requires any redistributor to provide the full source code.
&gt;
&gt;According to the court order, Sitecom did not fulfill the obligations
&gt;imposed by the GNU General Public License covering the
&gt;netfilter/iptables
&gt;software. In particular, Sitecom did not make any source code offering
&gt;or include the GPL license terms with their products.
&gt;
&gt;Following a warning notice, Sitecom refused to sign a declaration to
&gt;cease
&gt;and desist. Thus, the netfilter/iptables project was compelled to ask
&gt;the
&gt;court for a preliminnary injuction, banning Sitecom from distributing
&gt;its
&gt;product, unless Sitecom complies with all obligations imposed by the GNU
&gt;GPL.
&gt;
&gt;&quot;To my knowledge, this is the first case in which a judicial decision
&gt;has
&gt;been decreed on the applicability and the validity of the GNU GPL&quot;, says
&gt;Dr.
&gt;Till Jaeger, partner of the Berlin and Munich based law firm JBB
&gt;Rechtsanwaelte (<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.jbb.de/";>http://www.jbb.de/</a>) that represented the
&gt;netfilter/iptables
&gt;project in the litigation.
&gt;
&gt;This preliminary injunction follows a series of out-of-court settlement
&gt;agreements that the netfilter/iptables project has concluded within a
&gt;short
&gt;period of time. When asked about the reasons for the sudden rise in
&gt;legal
&gt;pressure for GPL compliance, Harald Welte, Chairman of the Netfilter
&gt;Core
&gt;Team states:
&gt;
&gt;&quot;We are not in any way opposing the commercial use of free and open
&gt;source
&gt;software. Specifically, there is no legal risk of using GPL licensed
&gt;software in commercial products.  But vendors have to comply with the
&gt;license terms, just like they would have to with any other, even
&gt;proprietary
&gt;software license agreement.&quot;
&gt;
&gt;
&gt;About the netfilter/iptables project
&gt;
&gt;The netfilter/iptables project provides state-of-the-art network
&gt;security
&gt;software for Linux firewalling, packet filter and network address
&gt;translation (NAT), distributed as Free Software under the terms of the
&gt;GNU
&gt;General Public License.  Being part of the linux operating system
&gt;kernel,
&gt;the software is running on virtually every Linux installation.
&gt;
&gt;For more information on the project or the software, visit
&gt;<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.netfilter.org/";>http://www.netfilter.org/</a>
&gt;
&gt;
&gt;Media contact:
&gt;netfilter core team
&gt;Harald Welte
&gt;Phone: +49-30-24033902
&gt;Email: laforge at netfilter.org
&gt;
&gt;_______________________________________________
&gt;Politech mailing list
&gt;Archived at <a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.politechbot.com/";>http://www.politechbot.com/</a>
&gt;Moderated by Declan McCullagh (<a  rel="nofollow" href="http://www.mccullagh.org/";>http://www.mccullagh.org/</a>)

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