4 ms·

Couldn't the FSF sue on their behalf?

by nsv 5y ago

rrix2 5y ago
On what grounds? The FSF has no standing to sue like that. The software freedom conservancy has lawyers who will work on copyleft infringement cases like this but a copyright holder still has to step forward as a plaintiff.
- cma 5y ago
  They could just provide legal support without being the plaintiff. They have done so before (or rather the Software Freedom Conservancy (Conservancy)): >That is how the FSF and Conservancy have always handled compliance. The FSF has done compliance work for the GNU Project for decades, and in all that time, we have only been forced to file a lawsuit once. The suit came about after years of working with the violator trying to correct their compliance. Even in that instance, where the FSF eventually did have to sue, the violator later went on to become a contributor to the GNU Project, and continued other free software activities as well. Conservancy has a similar track record of avoiding lawsuits; they are currently funding Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in Germany, which marks the first time Conservancy has ever been involved with a lawsuit regarding Linux, and their FAQ explains the lawsuit came after four years of friendly efforts by many parties asking VMware to follow the GPL's requirements. https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2016/fall/the-role-of-lawsuits-in-gpl-compliance https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2016/fall/the-role-of-lawsuits-... >Conservancy maintains this FAQ list regarding Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in Germany over alleged GPL violations on Linux as a service to the Free Software community, and in particular, the copyleft community. Conservancy realizes this lawsuit generates many questions and interest from the community. Legal counsel (both Conservancy's own, and Christoph's lawyer, Till Jaeger) correctly advise us to limit our public comments regarding specific details of the case while litigation remains pending in court. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html#why-lawsuit https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vmware-lawsuit...
- pabs3 5y ago
  The copyright holders can delegate the ability to sue to others, so FSF could do that if delegated. Software Freedom Conservancy have a similar delegation and copyright aggregation programs for Linux and Debian developers: https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/ https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/
lmm 5y ago
No, only the copyright holder. If it were an FSF program where they owned the copyright then they would (this is one of the reasons the FSF requires copyright assignment).

Couldn't the FSF sue on their behalf?

by nsv 5y ago

Couldn't the FSF sue on their behalf?

On what grounds? The FSF has no standing to sue like that. The software freedom conservancy has lawyers who will work on copyleft infringement cases like this but a copyright holder still has to step forward as a plaintiff.

cma 5y ago
They could just provide legal support without being the plaintiff. They have done so before (or rather the Software Freedom Conservancy (Conservancy)): >That is how the FSF and Conservancy have always handled compliance. The FSF has done compliance work for the GNU Project for decades, and in all that time, we have only been forced to file a lawsuit once. The suit came about after years of working with the violator trying to correct their compliance. Even in that instance, where the FSF eventually did have to sue, the violator later went on to become a contributor to the GNU Project, and continued other free software activities as well. Conservancy has a similar track record of avoiding lawsuits; they are currently funding Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in Germany, which marks the first time Conservancy has ever been involved with a lawsuit regarding Linux, and their FAQ explains the lawsuit came after four years of friendly efforts by many parties asking VMware to follow the GPL's requirements. https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2016/fall/the-role-of-lawsuits-in-gpl-compliance https://www.fsf.org/bulletin/2016/fall/the-role-of-lawsuits-... >Conservancy maintains this FAQ list regarding Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in Germany over alleged GPL violations on Linux as a service to the Free Software community, and in particular, the copyleft community. Conservancy realizes this lawsuit generates many questions and interest from the community. Legal counsel (both Conservancy's own, and Christoph's lawyer, Till Jaeger) correctly advise us to limit our public comments regarding specific details of the case while litigation remains pending in court. https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html#why-lawsuit https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vmware-lawsuit...
pabs3 5y ago
The copyright holders can delegate the ability to sue to others, so FSF could do that if delegated. Software Freedom Conservancy have a similar delegation and copyright aggregation programs for Linux and Debian developers: https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/ https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/

lmm 5y ago

No, only the copyright holder. If it were an FSF program where they owned the copyright then they would (this is one of the reasons the FSF requires copyright assignment).