86 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
86 lines
3.8 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
|
||
|
||
<html newsdate="2011-11-07">
|
||
<version>1</version>
|
||
|
||
<head>
|
||
<title>Court rejects AVM´s claims opposing third party modifications of GPL software</title>
|
||
</head>
|
||
<body>
|
||
|
||
<h1>Court rejects AVM´s claims opposing third party modifications of GPL software</h1>
|
||
|
||
<p>On November 8th the Regional Court of Berlin [Landgericht
|
||
Berlin] issued its decision in the previously reported case AVM Computersysteme
|
||
Vertriebs GmbH (AVM) v. Cybits AG (Cybits). In this case, AVM was essentially
|
||
trying to stop Cybits from modifying GNU GPL licensed Free Software inside of
|
||
their AVM Fritz!Box products. Yesterday, the court dismissed this principal
|
||
claim. Thus, it also confirmed that users of embedded devices with
|
||
pre-installed Free Software have the legal freedom to make, install, run and
|
||
distribute modifications to this Free Software. The Free Software Foundation
|
||
Europe (FSFE) and gpl-violations.org, both welcome this decision.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Although the written reasoning of the decision is not available yet, it is
|
||
clear that the court rejected AVM's claims according to which no third party
|
||
shall be permitted to alter their products' firmware, even if the GNU GPL
|
||
components are concerned. Thus, Cybits or anyone else may perform such
|
||
modifications. Furthermore, under the judgement, Cybits is not prohibited from
|
||
distributing its software that assists users in making and installing
|
||
modifications to GNU GPL licensed software (Linux kernel used in the Fritz!Box
|
||
device).</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>"I am extremely pleased that the court turned down any request by AVM to
|
||
control any modification to the GNU GPL licensed components of the Fritz!Box
|
||
firmware. Enabling and encouraging everyone to innovate based on existing
|
||
software and products is a key aspect of the Free Software movement.", says
|
||
Harald Welte, founder of gpl-violations.org and third party intervener on
|
||
behalf of Cybits in the dispute.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>On the other hand, the court upheld an auxiliary claim raised by AVM. In its
|
||
ruling, it enjoins Cybits from distributing the software only in case it causes
|
||
the web interface to display a wrong status of the internet connection and web
|
||
filtering software. "But this is a side issue, the important part is: Free
|
||
Software gives everybody the right to use, study, share, and improve it. Nobody
|
||
should be allowed to prevent others from executing those rights", says Matthias
|
||
Kirschner, FSFE's German coordinator.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>The decision can be appealed by either party within one month.</p>
|
||
|
||
<!-- Next paragraph from
|
||
https://fsfe.org/news/2011/news-20110620-01.en.html available in DE,
|
||
EL, FR, IT -->
|
||
|
||
<p>FSFE and gpl-violations.org are committed to encouraging the use of Free
|
||
Software by companies and developers by making licensing and compliance as easy
|
||
as possible. Generally it is considerably easier to comply with Free Software
|
||
licenses than with EULAs and other license agreements for non-Free software.
|
||
Often it is only necessary to add a copy of the GNU GPL license text to
|
||
documentation, and add an offer to provide the software source code (see
|
||
<a href="/activities/ftf/useful-tips-for-vendors.html">FSFE's compliance tips</a>).</p>
|
||
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li><a href="/activities/avm-gpl-violation/avm-gpl-violation.html">Detailed background information</a></li>
|
||
<li>Previous news on this case:</li>
|
||
<ul>
|
||
<li>2011-06-20 - <a href="/news/2011/news-20110620-01.html">AVM violating license of the Linux kernel</a></li>
|
||
<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>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
<li><a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/465070/">LWN article: "ELCE11: Till Jaeger on AVM vs. Cybits"</a></li>
|
||
</ul>
|
||
|
||
</body>
|
||
<tags>
|
||
<tag key="front-page"/>
|
||
<tag key="gpl"/>
|
||
<tag key="avm"/>
|
||
<tag key="compliance"/>
|
||
<tag key="legal"/>
|
||
<tag key="de"/>
|
||
</tags>
|
||
</html>
|
||
<!--
|
||
Local Variables: ***
|
||
mode: xml ***
|
||
End: ***
|
||
-->
|