BusyBox settles another lawsuit

BusyBox settles another lawsuit

Posted Mar 7, 2008 5:00 UTC (Fri) by stevenj (guest, #421)
In reply to: BusyBox settles another lawsuit by jwb
Parent article: BusyBox settles another lawsuit

Black Duck Software has been doing this for years, too; there has been some bad blood between them and their competitor Palamida.

The viability of this kind of company, and the repeated settlements of GPL lawsuits, are just reminders of the fact that most people (including most programmers) have no clue about copyright law. It seems like some training in copyright should be increasingly viewed as necessary background for professional software developers.

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"It seems like some training in copyright should be increasingly viewed as necessary
background for professional software developers."

What they need to do is simplify copyright law so that people can get it a little better
without needing a degree in it.

Furthermore, musicians and others have the same problems. Good luck with that.

all the best,

drew
http://zotzbro.blogspot.com/

Simplify copyright law how? The 10 cent version of copyright law is "don't copy what someone
else created without making sure they're all right with it." That's the part these people are
violating. Most of the complexity is in the rules about what you can use without getting
permission.

Which is utterly false and dangerous to think. It should rather be "don't copy anything unless
you've cleared it with the rights holder." It's usually much easier to get the creators
blessing than the rights holders, and thinking that the creators blessing gives you legal
protection from the rights holder is just dangerous.