Re: Kernel Firmware issue: are GPLed sourceless firmwares legal to distribute ?
Stephen Gran <sgran@debian.org> wrote:
> [...] If it is a
> license from the copyright holders, than the only ones who can sue
> Debian for distribution of sourceless GPL'ed works are, er, the people
> who originally gave out those works in that form. I understand there is
> some contention around whether this claim is accurate (and I claim no
> deep understanding of international copyright and contract law to make a
> claim for either side), but I think that is the fairly simple counter
> argument. [...]
While fairly simple, it is totally incorrect, as public distribution in
breach of copyright carries criminal liability in England, as I previously
posted. See the Copyright Designs and Patents Act as amended, under
the criminal liability heading. http://www.jenkins-ip.com/patlaw/cdpa1.htm
I suspect most of the EU has similar law these days, although I cannot
name them.
By the way, we could be sued by the copyright holders of any firmware
which has been reproduced without permission: that is, the copyright
holders are not those issuing them under GPL.
I remind aj that I am not a lawyer, but have been punished for copyright
mistakes in the past, so learnt about it.
--
MJR/slef
My Opinion Only: see http://people.debian.org/~mjr/
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