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If you don't follow the license, then you don't have a license to use, distribute or modify the code. So then you get into copyright violation territory, up to
by rwmj 1y ago
If you don't follow the license, then you don't have a license to use, distribute or modify the code. So then you get into copyright violation territory, up to $150,000 per infringement in the US if it's intentional.
- anilakar 1y agoSadly in my experience various courts have taken a stance that violating GPL does not cause monetary damages, because the software in question is free.
- rwmj 1y agoCan you cite some actual cases?
- seanhunter 1y agoI somewhat doubt they can since in the US the BusyBox lawsuits pretty much all ended with the infringers settling and paying out, and those that didn’t settle, busybox won[1]. I would think that, and the original artistic license lawsuits (which were decided on by the US court of appeals) established that infringing open source softwaree licenses is a copyright infringement. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BusyBox#GPL_lawsuits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BusyBox#GPL_lawsuits