Skype have finally reneged on their ongoing challenge to the validity of the GPL2 open source software licence.
Skype had used open source software (Linux) licensed under the GPL2 in Skype-phones, but didn't comply with the requirement to supply the source code of the software with the phone. GPL compliance enforcer extraordinaire Harald Welte brought a case against Skype before the German Courts, who deemed this a breach of the GPL2 licence terms in August 2007. Skype initially decided to appeal against this decision.
Commenting on the issue of GPL2’s requirement to make source codes available, in possibly one of the more esoteric analyses of open source software terms, one of the judges stated:
“If a publisher wants to publish a book of an author that wants his book only to be published in a green envelope, then that might seem odd to you, but still you will have to do it as long as you want to publish the book and have no other agreement in place.”
This seems to me to imply that open source software licensing is really weird (at least to a German judge), but that an open source software licensee must still comply with the terms of the licence. Which is probably correct, albeit using a rather strange example.
Skype’s decision to withdraw from the Appeal (as opposed to being ruled against) sadly leaves us with no definitive legal decision to add any clarity (although we still have the first instance decision). It does, however, indicate that, at least in Germany, GPL licence terms are taken seriously.
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