However, other entities who do not share the full ethos of software freedom

as institutionalized by FSF pursue GPL violations differently.  Oracle, a

company that produces the GPL'd MySQL database, upon discovering GPL

violations typically negotiates a proprietary software license separately for

a fee.  While this practice is not one that FSF nor Conservancy would ever

consider undertaking or even endorsing, it is a legally way for copyright

holders to proceed.

Generally, GPL enforcers come in two varieties.  First, there are

Conservancy, FSF, and other ``community enforcers'', who primary seek the

policy goals of GPL (software freedom), and see financial compensation as

ultimately secondary to those goals.  Second, there are ``for-profit

enforcers'' who use the GPL as a either a crippleware license, or sneakily

induce infringement merely to gain proprietary licensing revenue.

Note that the latter model \texit{only} works for companies who hold 100\% of

the copyrights in the infringed work.  As such, multi-copyright-held works

are fully insulated from these tactics.

\section{Communication Is Key}

GPL violations are typically only escalated when a company ignores the

copyright holder's initial communication or fails to work toward timely

copyright holders to make sure everyone agrees on targets and deadlines

for resolving the situation.

Ensure that any staff who might receive communications regarding alleged

GPL violations understands how to channel the communication appropriately

within your organization.  Often, initial contact is addressed for general

correspondence (e.g., by mail to corporate headquarters or by e-mail to

general informational or support-related addresses).  Train the staff that

processes such communications to escalate them to someone with authority

to take action.  An unknowledgable response to such an inquiry (e.g., from

a first-level technical support person) can cause negotiations to fail

prematurely.

Answer promptly by multiple means (paper letter, telephone call, and

email), even if your response merely notifies the sender that you are

investigating the situation and will respond by a certain date.  Do not

let the conversation lapse until the situation is fully resolved.

Proactively follow up with synchronous communication means to be sure

communications sent by non-reliable means (such as email) were received.

Remember that the software freedom community generally values open communication and

cooperation, and these values extend to GPL enforcement.  You will

generally find that software freedom developers and their lawyers are willing to

have a reasonable dialogue and will work with you to resolve a violation