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85 lines
3.8 KiB
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<html newsdate="2011-11-07">
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<version>1</version>
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<head>
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<title>Court rejects AVM´s claims opposing third party modifications of GPL software</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Court rejects AVM´s claims opposing third party modifications of GPL software</h1>
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<p>On November 8th the Regional Court of Berlin [Landgericht
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Berlin] issued its decision in the previously reported case AVM Computersysteme
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Vertriebs GmbH (AVM) v. Cybits AG (Cybits). In this case, AVM was essentially
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trying to stop Cybits from modifying GNU GPL licensed Free Software inside of
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their AVM Fritz!Box products. Yesterday, the court dismissed this principal
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claim. Thus, it also confirmed that users of embedded devices with
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pre-installed Free Software have the legal freedom to make, install, run and
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distribute modifications to this Free Software. The Free Software Foundation
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Europe (FSFE) and gpl-violations.org, both welcome this decision.</p>
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<p>Although the written reasoning of the decision is not available yet, it is
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clear that the court rejected AVM's claims according to which no third party
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shall be permitted to alter their products' firmware, even if the GNU GPL
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components are concerned. Thus, Cybits or anyone else may perform such
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modifications. Furthermore, under the judgement, Cybits is not prohibited from
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distributing its software that assists users in making and installing
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modifications to GNU GPL licensed software (Linux kernel used in the Fritz!Box
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device).</p>
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<p>"I am extremely pleased that the court turned down any request by AVM to
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control any modification to the GNU GPL licensed components of the Fritz!Box
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firmware. Enabling and encouraging everyone to innovate based on existing
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software and products is a key aspect of the Free Software movement.", says
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Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org and third party intervener on
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behalf of Cybits in the dispute.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, the court upheld an auxiliary claim raised by AVM. In its
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ruling, it enjoins Cybits from distributing the software only in case it causes
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the web interface to display a wrong status of the internet connection and web
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filtering software. "But this is a side issue, the important part is: Free
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Software gives everybody the right to use, study, share, and improve it. Nobody
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should be allowed to prevent others from executing those rights", says Matthias
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Kirschner, FSFE's German coordinator.</p>
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<p>The decision can be appealed by either party within one month.</p>
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<!-- Next paragraph from
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https://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.en.html available in DE,
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EL, FR, IT -->
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<p>FSFE and gpl-violations.org are committed to encouraging the use of Free
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Software by companies and developers by making licensing and compliance as easy
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as possible. Generally it is considerably easier to comply with Free Software
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licenses than with EULAs and other license agreements for non-Free software.
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Often it is only necessary to add a copy of the GNU GPL license text to
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documentation, and add an offer to provide the software source code (see
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<a href="/activities/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.html">FSFE's compliance tips</a>).</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="/activities/avm-gpl-violation/avm-gpl-violation.html">Detailed background information</a></li>
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<li>Previous news on this case:</li>
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<ul>
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<li>2011-06-20 - <a href="/news/2011/news-20110620-01.html">AVM violating license of the Linux kernel</a></li>
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<li>2011-06-22 - <a href="/news/2011/news-20110622-01.html">FSFE on AVM vs Cybits: A small computer is still a computer</a></li>
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</ul>
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<li><a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/465070/">LWN article: "ELCE11: Till Jaeger on AVM vs. Cybits"</a></li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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<tags>
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<tag key="front-page"/>
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<tag key="gpl"/>
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<tag key="avm"/>
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<tag key="compliance"/>
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<tag key="legal"/>
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<tag key="de"/>
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</tags>
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</html>
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