What Would You Do If You Found a GPL Violator

What would you do if you found someone who was violating the GNU GPL? Would you report them? I should probably tell the story first. [This guy wants to bring about a peacful resolution to a violation of the GPL. Click the Read More Link to see what LXer says. - DC Parris]

After personal efforts have failed to bring about a resolution, I would not hesitate to contact the Free Software Foundation or GPL-Violations.org for assistance. Here's why. The Free Software Foundation and GPL-Violations.org both attempt to resolve such conflicts on amicable terms. That is, they do not immediately resort to legal threats. They discuss the problem in friendly terms first. Only as a last resort do they pull out the legal threats and action. If I recall, the FSF has only brought one case to trial. Additionally, both of these organizations may be able to help the author of the code resolve the problem himself. The approach of most in the community is not to beat someone over the head with lawsuits, but to convince people to simply open their code. The FSF have convinced nearly all violators to open their code. GPL-Violations.org also attempts to avoid court fights, but has gotten publicity for having gone to court. The resolution process can take a fair amount of time, so developers seeking to enforce their license need to be patient. Here's hoping our reader gets the problem solved amicably. -- DC Parris

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