Software Freedom Conservancy Takes On Vizio in Lawsuit Alleging GPL Violations
Inside of a Vizio TV – Model V435-J01 – photo credit: Software Freedom Conservancy The Software Freedom Conservancy announced that it is suing Vizio, an American TV manufacturer, for what it alleges are “repeated failures to fulfill even the basic requirements of the General Public License (GPL).” The 501(c)(3) charity organization is a non-profit that provides infrastructure support for free and open source software projects, defending users’ rights under copyleft licenses and the GPL. A few of its member projects include BusyBox, Git, Homebrew, OpenWrt, and phpMyAdmin. As part of its mission, the Conservancy assists member projects in enforcing the terms of FLOSS licenses, including through litigation. The Software Freedom Conservancy contends that Vizio’s TV products contain software with copyleft licenses but the company refused to provide the source code after multiple attempts at contact since 2018. Vizio also did not inform its customers about the rights included with the software it was bundling. “We filed suit as a purchaser of TVs to stand up for copyleft,” Software Freedom Conservancy Executive Director Karen Sandler said. “There was no source or offer for source even after we’d been working with them for a long time on older products. Copyleft can help…
…Full post on WP Tavern
Read Full
