First US GPL Lawsuit Heads For Quick Settlement

DeviceGuru writes to tell us that the first lawsuit centered around the GPL seems to have been quickly resolved outside of the courtroom. Monsoon Multimedia was quick to admit that they had violated the GPLv2 in their modified BusyBox code and will soon be releasing the source to come into full compliance with the license.

Cue Amelia from slayers

[Spy der Mann]

Victory!!! ^_^

Aha!

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Violate GPL
2. Get sued and get massive publicity for your little device that's actually kinda cool, then settle
3. Profit!

Bargaining chip

[LiquidCoooled]

They did not win on technical grounds, and any sane (or insane) lawyer would have done the same.
They backed down once they found out RMS might be called to testify.

In reality, this means that there is still no precedent for the GPL in court which is a shame.

Re:Call the Grammar Nazi

[KermodeBear]

Does definition determine usage or does usage determine definition?

Conspiracy theory in favor of Monsoon

[tygt]

Ok I really don't know anything about this, but... what if Monsoon is actually on the tux side and wanted to provide an opportunity for a court case which they were already planning on caving on, just so that others would think "well you *can* get sued and those guys caved".

I know, far fetched. But still, I love a good conspiracy theory.

Re:Bargaining chip

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, his B.O. is considered a weapon of mass destruction.

Re:Precedent

[maxume]

Only the sandman can loose sleep. Other creatures occasionally lose it though.