Dealing With a GPL Violation? 204
Sortova writes "For many years now I've been maintaining OpenNMS, a free and open source network management framework published under the GPL. A couple of years ago it came to our attention that a company called Cittio was using OpenNMS as part of their proprietary and commercial network management application. I talked with Jamie Lerner, the Cittio founder, and he assured me that Cittio was abiding by the GPL. However, we were recently contacted by a potential client who was also considering Cittio's Watchtower, and it appears that they are not disclosing that they are using GPL'd code or at least not in the clear and concise fashion required by the GPL, including the offer of source code for all of the code they are including and any changes being made to that code. Since the copyright for OpenNMS is held by a number of commercial companies, the Software Freedom Law Center is not able to help us defend or even investigate a potential violation. I was curious if anyone here on Slashdot had experienced anything similar or has any advice?"
Asked before -- the answer is the same (Score:5, Insightful)
Bye bye my application (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bye bye my application (Score:4, Insightful)
And it is something that is done by sales people, not programmers?
Re:You don't know they are in violation (Score:4, Insightful)
If there's something they've changed in your project then purchase a copy and put the changed code in your version, since any modified GPL code must be re-distributed as GPL code.
Re:Check out the SFLC guidelines. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bye bye my application (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would you think that? People are usually good at some things, not at others. I think it's very likely that a person good at programming and software design wouldn't necessarily be good at (or even interested in) running a business, accounting, marketing, all the legal stuff, etc. It's also very hard to find people to come in with you who are, based only on your software/coding expertise. I speak from experience.
Re:Bye bye my application (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Bye bye my application (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You don't know they are in violation (Score:5, Insightful)
Only Cittio's customers (the ones receiving the product) could ask for the source code, because they're redistributing to them, not you. Cittio's customers could then re-distribute that GPL code however they wished.
Re:Bye bye my application (Score:2, Insightful)
Additionally (Score:3, Insightful)
Show and Tell ( ... anyone? ) (Score:2, Insightful)
Typical situation:
* programmer needs X (to "scratch own itch")
* programmer makes X and realized that, wow, other people might want to use it or contribute to it
* programmer releases source
* FIN
A few things might happen:
* people contribute to X and make it better, for friggin FREE!
* companies use X - programmer helped out other human beings
* depending on license X was released under, if companies make their own improvements, they have to release the source code
You can be a douche bag and spend lot of time packaging EVERY projects you EVER make, and charging $19.95 for it
Make something seriously cool that's worth marketing and selling
But if you don't get how anyone might want to
As a side note
I follow a lot of what the writers of my favorite libraries do/blog and I'd love nothing more than to, one day, release projects that help others, as I've been helped by so, so, so many open source projects.
Finally, I'd reiterate that a lot of the open source projects our there are there because someone made something to scratch his/her own itch
A lot of these projects would NOT SELL on their own. Other people use them because they exist, but, if they didn't exist for free, the companies would likely program it themselves. When a company uses your code in their software, you simply end up getting more exposure and
People like you would rather have an apple rot than give it away to others. If your apple's ripe and you're not going to eat it
</rant>
Re:Just write it up (Score:2, Insightful)
Why go straight on the offensive? By detailing their offenses, you're pretty much saying you're already convinced they're in the wrong, which tends to put people on the defensive.
What's wrong with simply asking "Hey guys, i see you're using GPL'd software, which is great. Could you give me some more information on how you make the source code available to your customers?"
Re:As has been said: They don't have to give the c (Score:3, Insightful)
This goes against the spirit of the GPL.... To take your example to the extreme, suppose that they made the code available via 3of9 barcode in printed format? stone tablet (mailed to you via overnight delivery at your expense)? 8" floppy disks? download via modem @ 300bps at $19.95/minute? Maybe stone tablets aren't machine readable but the rest are.
It's the "complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code" and "a medium customarily used for software interchange" you quoted that explain it. How many computers have floppy disks these days? Mine doesn't. When was the last time you saw anyone exchange code on a floppy disk?
Re:Check out the SFLC guidelines. (Score:3, Insightful)