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Commercial users still take copyright issues pretty seriously because of the remedies available to copyright holders under title 17. Even if an author doesn't
by lakecresva 5y ago
Commercial users still take copyright issues pretty seriously because of the remedies available to copyright holders under title 17.
Even if an author doesn't register the copyright until they want to begin the suit (you lose statutory damages and attorneys fees this way), they can get an injunction against further distribution and disgorgement of profits from the infringing work, so if you get caught, your product is dead and has made (you) no money. This is also why the FSF/SFLC has like a 100% success rate when it comes to extracting highly favorable settlements.
Without a doubt people still infringe, but it's not a complete free for all.
- pabs3 5y agoBTW, SFLC (Software Freedom Law Centre) != SFC (Software Freedom Conservancy).
- singpolyma3 5y agoDefinitely not a 100% success rate and I question "highly favorable" when settlements almost never result in a complete end to infringement by even the one entity settling and are so slow and expensive to get that thousands more spring up in the meantime...
- lakecresva 5y agoIf you have access to legal databases like Westlaw/Lexis, you can look up the lawsuits the FSF and SFLC have been a party to. All of those suits were settled and the plaintiffs secure monetary compensation, disclosure of the source code, and in some cases the ability to pre-screen future releases to make sure they're complying with the GPL. The reason why many shops take copyright seriously or ban the use of GPL software (you can argue either way that the latter is or is not a victory for the GPL) is because this creates a deterrent effect.