Software Freedom Law Center files first GPL lawsuit in the U.S.
In potentially groundbreaking news, the Software Freedom Law Center has filed the first lawsuit seeking to enforce the GNU General Public License, or GPL. The GPL is a software license for free software (not free as in no money, but free as in freely-distributable, -modifiable, etc.) that requires derivative software to be release under the GPL. It also requires distributors to release the source code of the software or any derivative software.
Up to this point, the Free Software Foundation has been able to enforce the GPL informally, but Monsoon Multimedia did not respond to its notices. So the SFLC filed suit, representing the developers of BusyBox, a GPL-licensed program that Monsoon Multimedia incorporated into its hardware. Although Monsoon uses a modified version of BusyBox, it refuses to distribute its source code.
As a result, the GPL will have an opportunity to be tested in U.S. courts. It seems like the SFLC has chosen a relatively clean case on which to test the GPL. If this case comes to a decision of law, hopefully the GPL will win, giving it the endorsement of at least one federal district court.
