
GPL Compliance and Licensing: More background about the Cisco case - prakash
http://www.fsf.org/blogs/licensing/2008-12-cisco-complaint
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aristus
A bridge too far, I fear. I've read the complaint and it appears that
Cisco/Linksys has been unhelpful & lazy about compliance. But one of FSF's
demands is silly and the other is kind of scary and I can understand why Cisco
is kicking.

Silly: The demand that Cisco contact all owners of infringing products over
the last 5 years is ridiculous. I have one of the WRT45G routers I bought with
cash 4 years and 2,000 miles away. If these things were _giving people cancer_
they still couldn't find me.

Scary: _“Linksys shall compensate FSF ... for its past distribution of FSF
programs in a manner that did not comply with the applicable free software
license.”_

What's the going rate for infringement? $150,000 per copy or something?

~~~
brl
"What's the going rate for infringement? $150,000 per copy or something?"

There is a range for statutory damages from $750 - $30000 per WORK (not per
copy).

There is no reason to believe that the FSF would be awarded anything more than
the minimum since they have not suffered any economic damage from the
infringement.

~~~
aristus
Ah! Good catch, thank you. That is a huge difference.

So they are demanding about a million cash maximum, plus a dedicated
compliance officer, plus a recall-like effort to notify millions of customers
about a "defect" that few will care about or understand -- in effect,
subsidizing FSF's educational and advocacy efforts.

Hmm. This seems a little more reasonable but I still think this is a big risk
on the part of the FSF.

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hs
as time goes gnu/gpl/fsf looks like a license troll to me

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newt0311
So... anybody hear Cisco's side of this story yet?

Apparently, they weren't quite denying access to the source code outright but
placed it on their website (where 1 hn commenter managed to find it,
presumably, not after that much time). What about those requests the FSF
claims went unheard?

Seriously, if not the lawsuit, at least the demands leveled against Cisco are
ludicrous.

