Holger’s weblog

GPL upheld in court in Germany

September 22nd, 2006

Earlier this month a court in Germany ruled in favor of gpl-violations.org that D-Link had violated the GPL by including GPLed code in a hardware device without adhering to the terms of the GPL. Specifically, D-Link did not include a copy of the license with the device and did not make the parts of the source code that were GPL licensed available.

The full text of the decision is now available here for those of you that can read German and it is an interesting read. The court clarifies that licensing source code under the GPL does not mean the author of the code is waiving all his rights under copyright law. §4 of the GPL, that specifically prohibits distribution of the software in violation of the conditions set forth by the GPL, is fully valid under german law and D-Link thus had no right to distribute the device in question. D-Link had argued that the provisions of the GPL violate competition laws and cannot be enforced. The court stated that even if that was true (and it didn’t have to decide on that claim), then D-Link would have had no right at all to use the source code because an invalid license would also have voided the right to use it under its terms.

D-Link, in a statement that I find rather funny, said they are not going to appeal the ruling and praised themselves for not settling the case, so that now the GPL has been properly tested in court and can be relied on. They are certainly putting a good spin on their stubbornness .

Technorati : D-Link, GPL, Germany, copyright, court, license

Entry Filed under: News,Technology