Ikarus Security Software violating LGPL (Bochs, WINE and ReactOS)

[Arnoud Engelfriet]

Peter Kleissner wrote:
> Thanks for your responses. I was busy the last days with the lawsuits I got
> - Ikarus sued me now a third time. They accuse me of "offering and selling
> the Ikarus source internationally over the internet" - which source is
> itself based on open source (this is the reason why I turned here).

You really need a lawyer who can advise you on where you stand under
the law of your country.

It is not a given that because the program is based on GPL code, the
program itself is GPL as a whole. Even though this is how the GPL is
supposed to work, the GPL licensing is not automatic. The company has
to explicitly /approve/ of the GPL before the GPL extends to its own
contributions to the code.

The company might be violating the GPL by distributing a derivative
work without complying with the GPL, but that does not mean that
you are in the right by making the source available. You may well be
violating the company's copyright on its contributions by distributing
these in source code form.

In other words, the assertion "their contributions must be GPL 
therefore they *are* GPL" is not correct.

> I got big question to you: How do you normally proof a GPL violation? Do you
> also use specialized programs that do analysis of the binaries, do you
> provide the court a disassembly, a comparison, memory diffs etc.? Maybe
> anyone can send me lawsuit complaint of a GPL violation?

You can prove it in any way that convinces a judge (or, if applicable,
a jury). This could be as simple as applying strings(1) to the binaries
or showing that the program produces "Copyright Linus Torvalds" when
you run it with --version. 

However, once again: even if you prove that the company violated the
GPL, this does not necessarily help your case. If you are distributing
their contributions, you must show that you have permission *from them*
to distribute these. A requirement in the GPL is irrelevant for you,
as the company has not (as far as we can tell) accepted the GPL.

They might be infringing copyright or violating the GPL, but that is
between them and the copyright holders of the GPL code in question.

About the only thing you can realistically do is present the GPL
violation to them and tell them "please stop your lawsuit or I will
inform the copyright holders of the GPL code you used and they will
sue you." I hope that scares them enough to comply with your demand.

If it doesn't, you can inform the copyright holders and hope they
take the company to court. If they do that, you can ask the judge in
your case to suspend your case until the copyright lawsuit has been
resolved, because that lawsuit will significantly affect your case.
If the copyright holders don't want to act, then you have a serious
problem.

Arnoud

-- 
IT lawyer, blogger and patent attorney ~ Associate at ICTRecht.nl legal services
        http://www.arnoud.engelfriet.net/ ~ http://www.iusmentis.com/