Re: SFLC's GPL court enforcement -- track record

[Hyman Rosen]

Alexander Terekhov wrote:
> So plaintiffs want to settle (having fruitless negotiations thus far)
> and are asking delay of a conference meant to encourage defendants to
> settle?

The affidavit of service wasn't even filed until July 14.
I expect that in this case as in so many others, court
processes are slow and often delayed.

The proof will be, once the case is over, whether the
defendants properly make available the sources of the
GPLed software that they are distributing. That most
likely will be the case, because quoting from the
complaint:

    
<http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2008/jun/10/busybox/supermicro-complaint.pdf>
    15. On February 29, 2008, through their counsel,
        Plaintiffs notified Defendant of its unlawful
        conduct based upon its failure to comply with
        the License.
    16. On April 16, 2008, Defendant’s counsel provided
        Plaintiffs with source code which it represented
        to be the complete and corresponding code for the
        GPL-licensed software on the Infringing Products.
        Plaintiffs initiated a technical review of the source
        code and communicated to Defendant their other demands
        for settlement of the matter.
    17. On April 25, 2008, through their counsel, Plaintiffs
        notified Defendant that the source provided did not
        include “scripts used to control compilation and
        installation of the executable,” and therefore did not
        constitute “complete and corresponding source code”
        within the meaning of the license.
    18. Defendant has not responded to Plaintiff’s April 25
        notice, and continues to distribute the Infringing
        Products and Firmware in violation of Plaintiffs’
        exclusive rights under the Copyright Act.

This means that, as usual, the defendants don't want to be
bothered with the GPL requirements, but once they're being
sued, they'll finally bite the bullet and do it right. Then
the SFLC will move to have the case dismissed, and you'll
once again treat it as a failure rather than a victory.