[Fsfe-uk] Court slaps injunction on GPL infringer

[Chris Croughton]

Spotted on The Register:

  A German court has granted an injunction for an infringement of
  general public licence (GPL) software.

  Munich District Court granted the preliminary injunction against
  Sitecom Germany, in response to a request from the netfilter/iptables
  project.

  Sitecom sells a wireless access router product which uses software
  developed by the netfilter project. Under the terms of the GPL, this
  is OK - so long as Sitecom, as redistributor, makes the full source
  code available too. netfilter says the company has not only failed to
  do this, but has also neglected to include the terms of the GPL with
  its products.

  Lawyers acting for the netfilter/iptables project said that to the
  best of their knowledge, this is the first case in which a judge has
  ruled on the validity of the GNU GPL.

More at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/21/licence_germany/

It's the first real test case I've heard of for the GPL that has gone to
a court decision...

Chris C