GPL faces first court test

By Simon Aughton

Posted on 21 Sep 2007 at 12:16

The most popular free software licence is about to be tested in a US court for the first time.

In a case that could have implications for all open-source software developers, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Monsoon Multimedia, alleging that its BusyBox software violates the GNU General Public License (GPL).

This is by no means the first time that the GPL has been exercised, but all previous cases have been settled without resort to the courts.

The SFLC filed the lawsuit on behalf of the two programmers who created BusyBox, a small application which provides many standard Unix tools and is commonly used in embedded systems. It is open-source software and licensed under GPL version 2. It is also included in hardware products made by Monsoon Multimedia, such as the Hava video streaming boxes.

The SFLC's complaint is heavy in legal technicalities, but the argument comes down to the plaintiff's failure to distribute the BusyBox source code with its hardware, which it is obliged to do under the GPL.

Eben Moglen, founding director of the SFLC, says the GPL must be respected. "Free software licenses such as the GPL exist to protect the freedom of computer users. If we don't ensure that these licenses are respected, then they will not be able to achieve their goal. Our goal is simply to ensure that Monsoon Multimedia complies with the terms of the GPL."

Erik Andersen, one of the two BusyBox developers says he has no option but to pursue legal action. "If companies will not abide by the fair terms of our licence, then we have no choice but to ask our attorneys to go to court to force them to do so. We licensed BusyBox under the GPL to give users the freedom to access and modify its source code. If companies will not abide by the fair terms of our licence, then we have no choice but to ask our attorneys to go to court to force them to do so."

Monsoon Multimedia has yet to respond to a requests for comment.