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Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, 11 more named in GPL lawsuit

By | December 14, 2009, 8:59am PST

Summary: Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse and JVC are among 14 consumer electronics companies named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed today in New York by the Software Freedom Law Center.

Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse and JVC are among 14 consumer electronics companies named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed today in New York by the Software Freedom Law Center.

According to the complaint (.pdf), the defendants sold products containing software application BusyBox in violation of the terms of its license, the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2).

The entire list of companies named in the suit is as follows:

  • Best Buy
  • Samsung
  • Westinghouse
  • JVC
  • Western Digital
  • Robert Bosch
  • Phoebe Micro
  • Humax USA
  • Comtrend
  • Dobbs-Stanford
  • Versa Technology
  • Zyxel Communications
  • Astak
  • GCI Technologies

The suit was filed on behalf of the Software Freedom Conservancy, the non-profit “corporate home” of BusyBox, as well as Erik Andersen, one of the program’s principal developers and copyright holders.

From the statement:

Known as the “Swiss Army Knife” for Linux, BusyBox is a common component of a growing number of household devices, including Best Buy’s Insignia Blu Ray DVD Player, Samsung HDTVs, Westinghouse’s 52-inch LCD Television, and more than a dozen other products that the defendants have continued to sell without the permission of the software’s copyright holders. Under the terms of the GPLv2, anyone can view, modify, and use the program for free on the condition that they distribute the source code to customers.

The SFLC confirmed BusyBox violations in nearly 20 separate products cited in the complaint and gave each defendant ample time to comply with the requirements of the license.

The SFLC said the companies either failed to respond meaningfully to requests or ignored them altogether. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Since 2007, the SFLC says it has sued six companies, including Verizon and Cisco, for selling products with embedded FOSS programs in violation of the GPL. The SFLC is a non-profit law firm that offers pro-bono legal services to Free and Open Source Software developers.

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Topics

Software, GPL, Best Buy Co. Inc., Lawsuit, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., F/OSS, SFLC, Open Source, Tools & Techniques, Management, Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is associate editor of ZDNet and editor of SmartPlanet.

Disclosure

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Andrew Nusca

Editor

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor at ZDNet and editor of SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He lives in his native Philadelphia with his wife, cat and Boston Terrier.

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RE: Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, 11 more named in GPL lawsuit
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View in thread
0 Votes
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To quote the great songwriter, Tom Lehrer:
msalzberg 14th Dec 2009
"I have always found it interesting... that there are people who regard
copyright infringement as a form of flattery."
0 Votes
+ -
Obviously great...
Spiritusindomit@... 14th Dec 2009
Because I have no idea who he is.
0 Votes
+ -
You must be very young, where were you in the 1960's?
B.O.F.H. Updated - 14th Dec 2009
You can read about him here and here (site). He was a song writer.
0 Votes
+ -
I hope you're wrong
IT_User 14th Dec 2009
about the "was." Although I'll admit I haven't heard anything from him since "That was the Year that Was," I'll always hold out hope for more Tomfoolery.
0 Votes
+ -
Tom Lehrer is 81, I doubt that he is working on anything new.
B.O.F.H. 14th Dec 2009
Though I did enjoy his songs.
0 Votes
+ -
He quit after Kissinger or something
Robert Carnegie 2009 Updated - 15th Dec 2009
I'd like to hear a Tom Lehrer song about Twitter. Or an "I went to a marvellous party" at the White House I wasn't invited to. Or something about modern athletes and sex / performance enhancer scandals. (Or indeed sex performance enhancers.)

When he wrote "The Old Dope Peddler" there apparently weren't any local drug dealers in most neighbourhoods. Does it make it less or more funny that there now are?

"He gives the kids free samples,
Because he knows full well
That today's eager young faces
Will be tomorrow's clientele"

(To flatter him some more)
0 Votes
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re: You must be very young, where were you in the 1960's?
none none 14th Dec 2009
He was a song writer.

And a MIT professor.





happy
0 Votes
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RE: Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, 11 more named in GPL lawsuit
Loverock Davidson 14th Dec 2009
This is all the more reason not to use GPL'd licensed software. You will get sued if you do.
0 Votes
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Gotta (+)1 this
Spiritusindomit@... Updated - 14th Dec 2009
It seems all but arbitrary on a daily basis what form of dissemination they consider valid within their licensing arrangement. Not only that, GNU in general seems to arbitrarily decide it doesn't like some companies, and hammer them, while ignoring others in developing countries and other places they feel have some social right to plagiarize because some "man" was keeping them "down."

In my opinion busybox is a program that needs to be under the MIT license.
0 Votes
+ -
Excellent idea
Yagotta B. Kidding 14th Dec 2009
In my opinion busybox is a program that needs to be under the MIT license.

Nothing stopping you or anyone else from writing a clone and licensing it under MIT. Otherwise, your opinion is no different from someone who thinks that Microsoft should issue everything they've done under the GPL.
0 Votes
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Doesn't writing a clone
John Zern 14th Dec 2009
then put you in another fire all together, like patents and/or copywrite infringement?
0 Votes
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IANAL
Yagotta B. Kidding 14th Dec 2009
Doesn't writing a clone then put you in another fire all together, like patents and/or copywrite infringement?

No patents in evidence (else the lawsuit would have cited them, BTW -- you're supposed to bring all of your complaints if you're filing suit on the same basic material.)

Copyright? Only if you copy the code -- the function is by definition not covered by copyright, only the expression. That's how Compaq was founded: a clean-room reimplementation of the functionality of IBM's PC BIOS. Very well-tested law.
0 Votes
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LOL!
none none 14th Dec 2009
This is all the more reason not to use GPL'd licensed software. You will get sued if you do.

Actually, this is all the more reason not to violate any software license terms. You will get sued if you do.
0 Votes
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LD the Fallacious arguement.
Snooki_smoosh_smoosh 14th Dec 2009
.nt.
0 Votes
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I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't sue you L.D.
AdventTech67 15th Dec 2009
If you were doing things with their software that is against the law.

You god-darn idiot!
0 Votes
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No, they are the only ones who do that.....
devlin_X 23rd Dec 2009
Not like Microsoft has sued anyone over infringement. Hmmm... actually didn't they just loose an appeal after being caught infringing on someones patent?
0 Votes
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In a word,
HypnoToad72 14th Dec 2009
"Oops!"

grin


See, laws are for everyone - except the profiteers.
0 Votes
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GPL going to leave a bad taste in these folks mouth.
No_Ax_to_Grind 14th Dec 2009
Don't expect them to be big fans of the GPL or anything covered by it in the future.
0 Votes
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its quite simple.. release your code.. no suite
Been_Done_Before 14th Dec 2009
There is very little cost in releasing their code and most people wont even look twice at it.

What would be good is if other people copied it and used it. Then we might have some type of standardization... oohh crap ... noo i could not have said the S word... we wouldnt want consumers to be able to mix and match... now would we?
0 Votes
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1 simple sentence in the manual
baboddonggae 14th Dec 2009
would have saved them all this trouble.

"Source code available upon request."

The bad taste in their mouth is greed. Following the GPL is simple, and since they are using other people's software to make a profit, following the GPL shouldn't be too much to ask.
0 Votes
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Kinda like being pissed when they get sued ...
kd5auq 14th Dec 2009
for fraudulently using a charity or non-profit as a cover gimmick for expanded sales.
Yea, it may leave a bad taste, but so does getting caught stealing anything else.
Look at the Houston Police union caught using the U.S. Marine's "Toys for Tots" as a union fund raiser ...
0 Votes
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The bad taste of...
urbandk 14th Dec 2009
You mean the bad taste of not complying with a central stipulation of the license?

Something straightforward and easy with no real downside?

The bad taste of using other people's work without complying with their express instructions for how it be used?

The same bad taste left in companies' mouths when employees rat out their employers for using unlicensed copies of Windows, Office, or Adobe CS for instance?
0 Votes
+ -
How horrible for them. Having to abide by the license terms and all.
Letophoro 14th Dec 2009
Good grief. If they used licensed software, they were obligated to abide by the terms of the license. It wouldn't matter if it was licensed under the GPL, or under one of MS's licenses, or any other license. Whatever the terms of the license were, they must abide by them.
0 Votes
+ -
Ridiculous
none none 14th Dec 2009
I guess if someone was violating a license of yours, you'd think about their feelings before you brought the hammer down - after multiple failed attempts to get them to abide by being nice.

It comes as a surprise to me how wishy-washy you are about enforcing IP rights.






happy
0 Votes
+ -
Laws leave a bad taste in folks mouths...
jasonp@... Updated - 14th Dec 2009
Don't expect them to be big fans of the law or anything covered by it in the future.
0 Votes
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Just Plain Dumb
BOSS4908 Updated - 14th Dec 2009
This whole copyright is just plain dumb. First ,all busybox does is combine a bunch of codes togather. I can see where the listed companys would want to use something like this but there has to be a thousand ways to do it without using busybox code. I think it is just a money grab by an Ambulance chaseing lawfirm. But also as many ways and as easy as it would be to do the same thing with your code ,,,Just write it. It is a stupit lawsuit by the the lawfirm for a small piece of code just about anyone with Linux knowledge could right so it is not worth the suit and not worth the trouble to fight just write your own. It is like someone getting a patent for pealing an apple right to left and if you sell an apple peeler with instruction to peal right to left you will get sued. The whole patent is bogus.
0 Votes
+ -
First, it's about copyright, not patent
wolf_z 14th Dec 2009
Second, the GPL says if you modify the code and create a binary and give/sell that to customers, you *MUST* also provide source code as well.

The GPL2 lets you put that code on a website, include it on a CD, or even mail a CD to customers that ask.

This doesn't seem that hard to me--and I'm not terribly gung-ho about GPL matters.

If they didn't want the (minimal) hassle of providing source code on demand they shouldn't have used BusyBox.

If what you say is true and anybody could do a busybox clone then they *should* have. That way it wouldn't have been covered by the GPL.

All in all the GPL is remarkably mild as licenses go...
0 Votes
+ -
"has to be a thousand ways to do it without using busybox code"
jasonp@... 14th Dec 2009
Given a thousand ways, you'd think they might have picked one of those rather than breaking the law...wouldn't you?
0 Votes
+ -
What money?
SonofChef Updated - 14th Dec 2009
All they ask is for the company that use/modify their code was to release and distribute the source code. I don't see anywhere that said they are also asking for license fee.. because there is none, it is open source!
0 Votes
+ -
Fools. They should have
Yagotta B. Kidding 14th Dec 2009
stuck with Microsoft code. They could have done anything they liked with that.
0 Votes
+ -
I was born in the 1960s (reply to Tom Lehrer branch)
Robert Carnegie 2009 Updated - 15th Dec 2009
And I'm not very young.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, 11 more named in GPL lawsuit
makrekwe29-24353598471777462757714216093602 Updated - 5th Nov
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