CASE SYNOPSIS
This case has to do with netfilter/iptables, an open-source networking software which performs such tasks as creating firewalls to protect networks from unwanted traffic. Harald Welte, one of the initial creators of netfilter, sued Dutch company Sitecom, for using the software in a wireless network product without abiding by the terms of the General Public License (GPL). In early April of 2004, a three-judge panel in a Munich court granted Welte's request for a preliminary injunction to stop any distribution of the product that doesn’t comply with the GPL. Specifically, the court forbade Sitecom's German subsidiary from distributing the netfilter software without attaching the GPL text and the netfilter source code free of royalties. The importance of the case has to do with the broader ramifications for a software industry increasingly dependent on the
GPL. "This would be the first reported decision I'm aware of that interprets the GPL," said Brian Kelly, an intellectual-property attorney with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. "Case law interpreting the GPL is both inevitable and useful, because parties are going to end up fighting over ambiguities in the license." The decision lends weight to the license, said John Ferrell of law firm Carr & Ferrell. "This preliminary German decision reinforces the essential obligations of the GPL by requiring that if you adopt and distribute GPL code, you must include the GPL license terms and provide source code to users," he said. The decision could also help Welte to track down GPL violators in general. Welte claimed to have received many reports of alleged violators and has actively pursued several cases, claiming to have convinced Allnet, Fujitsu-Siemens, Securepoint, Belkin and Asus
into GPL compliance with their wireless networking products. Though a decision in Germany isn't directly relevant to cases in the United States, the countries' copyright and contracts laws are similar. This case was landmark for 2004 in that it is the first time the court began to increasingly scrutinize GPL. Reasons for this revolve around the fact that the popularity of servers using open-source operating systems such as Linux was steadily increasing. Other GPL-covered projects, including software for word processing, network adapters and Windows file sharing were also beginning to come to fruition at this point as well. Five years have passed since this case began what was assumed would be a wave of persecuting GPL violators—however this type of court action in the U.S. remains to be seen.
MORE INFORMATION http://www.gnu.org/licenses/
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS8810451705.html
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