diff --git a/compliance-guide.tex b/compliance-guide.tex index adc178727e7cf6e32f925cd478c69758eb5f9f63..e575014ad8c707383412a2bdf65781d266662a23 100644 --- a/compliance-guide.tex +++ b/compliance-guide.tex @@ -48,10 +48,11 @@ post-violation responses to the concerns of copyright holders. \chapter{Background} Early GPL enforcement efforts began soon after the GPL was written by -Richard Stallman in 1989, and consisted of informal community efforts, +Richard M.~Stallman (RMS) in 1989, and consisted of informal community efforts, often in public Usenet discussions.\footnote{One example is the public outcry over NeXT's attempt to make the Objective-C front-end to GCC - proprietary.} Over the next decade, the Free Software Foundation (FSF), + proprietary. RMS, in fact, handled this enforcement action personally and + the Objective-C front-end is still part of upstream GCC today.} Over the next decade, the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which holds copyrights in many GNU programs, was the only visible entity actively enforcing its GPL'd copyrights on behalf of the software freedom community. @@ -60,7 +61,7 @@ was generally a private process; the FSF contacted violators confidentially and helped them to comply with the license. Most violations were pursued this way until the early 2000's. -By that time, Linux-based systems had become very common, particularly in +By that time, Linux-based systems such as GNU/Linux and BusyBox/Linux had become very common, particularly in embedded devices such as wireless routers. During this period, public ridicule of violators in the press and on Internet fora supplemented ongoing private enforcement and increased pressure on businesses to @@ -71,7 +72,8 @@ Beginning in 2004, Harald Welte took a more organized public enforcement approach and launched \verb0gpl-violations.org0, a website and mailing list for collecting reports of GPL violations. On the basis of these reports, Welte successfully pursued many enforcements in Europe, including -formal legal action. +formal legal action. Harald earns the permanent fame as the first copyright +holder to bring legal action in a Court regarding GPL compliance. In 2007, the SFLC filed the first U.S.~copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of the GPL\@. While the lawsuits filed by SFLC on