SCO's new offensive and the GPL

SCO's new offensive and the GPL

Posted Jul 23, 2003 18:48 UTC (Wed) by MathFox (subscriber, #6104)
In reply to: SCO's new offensive and the GPL by iabervon
Parent article: SCO's new offensive

Improper copying takes place in propriatary software development too. The chances of discovery are small, only a few cases per year become public.
Between software vendors the case is usually settled with the infringer taking a licence (paying damages) for the infringed software. The FSF prefers to settle cases like this by demanding the infringing company to change procedures to prevent further infringement. I have heard stories about distributers (Dell) that ask their suppliers to comply with the license (GPL).
Awareness of licensing issues is certainly rising.

Copyright limits the act of copying to the author and his/her licensees. So, in your example the author is (criminally) wrong in sending a copy of the letter to the publisher. The publisher is wrong (in civil law) by printing the letter in the book. Most publishers will recall the offending book; they are allowed to distribute a reprint with the offending pages removed. The amount of compensation for the original writer of the letter will depend on the damage that he sustained in the incident; the publisher could be sentenced to pay the damages if the author can't be found.

[I am not a lawyer, and english is not my native tongue so bear with my choice of words here.]

---

(Log in to post comments)