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It would be useful to have a court case be litigated all the way to the Supreme Court to establish the enforceability of the GPL whereby the defendant is forced
by dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago
It would be useful to have a court case be litigated all the way to the Supreme Court to establish the enforceability of the GPL whereby the defendant is forced to share code against their will.
- hansjorg 4y agoThe current supreme court is very unlikely to rule for an individual against a large company. https://www.axios.com/2022/08/04/supreme-court-john-roberts-business https://www.axios.com/2022/08/04/supreme-court-john-roberts-...
- bee_rider 4y agoI wonder if the fact that lost of companies would like to stick lots of weird rules in their licenses could help here. Where’s John Deere in the pantheon of companies? They can’t be more powerful than the Googles and Faces Book of the world, right?
- boomboomsubban 4y agoJohn Deere is the 84th largest company on the Fortune 500. It may be below Google or Facebook, but it's still a major player.
- phpisthebest 4y agoI think they have confuse pro-government with pro-business. The Supreme court since FDR has been very resistant to role back the role of federal government, they have no problems smacking down state laws, but when it comes to rolling back federal laws or regulations well.... So here it would be determinative on which "side" the federal government chooses, or if the federal government stays silent which silence IMO is probably the most likely outcome for the federal government. If they stay out of the fight, I think Deere Loses. If the federal government defends Deere then I think it is more 50/50
- lakecresva 4y ago> whereby the defendant is forced to share code against their will. This remedy of compelling a party to do something they agreed to do is called 'specific performance', and US courts only even consider doing this when real property (land) is involved. For copyright infringement, generally what's available is injunctive relief preventing further infringement, disgorgement of profits, and statutory damages and attorneys fees as permitted by title 17. The injunction and disgorgement are the killers here that actually scare would-be infringers, and they mean that in most cases what you actually end up with is a settlement.
- croutonwagon 4y agoIs owning a tractor not considered real property?
- rtkwe 4y agoNo 'real property' is a legal term of art referring principally to land and buildings.
- Kranar 4y agoNo, it's real as in real estate.
- NoZebra120vClip 4y agoWhat if you have a building where you have LAN parties that play Unreal Tournament? Does that count? What if you host watch parties of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills? What if its address is on El Camino Real?
- dkjaudyeqooe 4y ago> only even consider doing this when real property (land) is involved. Courts force the sale of companies (etc) that don't involve real property. I think maybe they're reluctant and prefer monetary remedies but if what you say is correct that would neuter contracts pretty severely.
- 4y ago
- cbolton 4y agoThis could be messy to implement since the guilty party could have other legal obligations that prevent them from releasing the source code.
- lolc 4y agoEasy. Then they can't distribute their tractors anymore.
- pabs3 4y agoOr they get to switch from Linux to BSD/etc.
- tracker1 4y agoAnd of course, depending on chipsets used, that could be an expensive retrofit for existing tractors if BSD/etc doesn't support what is currently in use, or the providers or JD have to write their own drivers to support a BSD usage. Even then, there's still the likelihood they are using GPL code/libraries above and beyond Linux itself.
- JohnFen 4y agoI wouldn't expect the current supreme court to rule in any way that doesn't benefit corporate america.