GPL prevails again
9 May 2008 | 07:57 BST
Skype withdraws appeal
THE GPL WON OUT again Thursday in a German courtroom as Skype withdrew its appeal of a lower court ruling saying it violated the General Public License by offering mobile phones that used a modified Linux kernel without publishing that source code.
Harald Welte of the gpl-violations.org project sued Skype to enforce the GPL in February 2007. He won an injunction against Skype in a Munich court, but Skype appealed to a higher court. The hearing on Skype's appeal was held yesterday.
Skype's lawyers apparently tried to attack the GPL, attempting to argue that it violates German anti-trust law and other legislation and is somehow invalid. But the judges were having none of it.
The court held that Skype had not presented sufficient evidence or case law to support making such arguments. And even if it had, the court pointed out, then Skype would not be able to claim rights under the GPL.
The court might also have added that, were the GPL ruled invalid, Skype would have no license whatsoever and it would be committing copyright infringement.
After the court twice hinted that, if it was forced to judge, Skype was not likely to win, Skype wisely chose to withdraw its appeal and accept the lower court's decision. µ
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