[LAD] GPL Violation Alert! - Sorry if this is a duplicate

Erik de Castro Lopo mle+la at mega-nerd.com
Tue Aug 4 00:21:38 UTC 2009


Michael Fisher wrote:

> The following is a copied email I previously sent to Tom Szilagyi....

<snip>

Over the years, I have had about a dozen similar violations of the LGPL
under which I release libsndfile. Every single time I have contacted
a company or individual which is doing the wrong thing they have 
backed down and either come into compliance with the LGPL or stopped
using libsndfile.

However, each time this has happened, it was someone on the net informing
me privately of the violation and then me contact the company/individual
doing the wrong thing privately.

I honestly think that keeping things quiet and private decreases the
chances of the offender digging in their heels and trying to fight it
because the threat of public humiliation hangs over them. Once they 
have already been publicly humiliated they may not have much more to
loose.

In a case like this where multiple components are being distributed
illegally it is probably worthwhile sending a single email undersigned
by as many of the copyright holders as possible. When there are multiple
copyright holders at stake the guilty party must see that their chances
are so much worse.

One policy I took on very early in the development of libsndfile was
to actively encourage people, in as many geographical locations as
possible) to add their names to the copyright notices. This means that
if some in country X is violating the LGPL there is a reasonably good
chance that there is a copyright holder in that country.

HTH,
Erik
-- 
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Erik de Castro Lopo
http://www.mega-nerd.com/



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