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            <h2>What We Do</h2>

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           <h1>What We Do</h1>

           <p>Software Freedom Conservancy is a nonprofit organization

           centered around ethical technology. Our mission is to ensure the

           right to repair, improve and reinstall software. We promote and

           defend these rights through fostering free and open source

           software (FOSS) projects, driving initiatives that actively make

           technology more inclusive, and advancing policy strategies that

             defend FOSS (such as copyleft).</p>

           <p>Our work on <a href="/copyleft-compliance/">copyleft

           compliance</a>, including enforcement of the General Public

           License (GPL), is world-renowned.  We believe fundamentally that

           copyleft licenses are the best tool available today to empower

           users and consumers to take control of their electronic devices,

           liberate themselves from planned obsolesce, and join a free market

           where they choose who provides their software.</p>

           <p>We also believe that FOSS functions best when built by a

           egalitarian community in which hobbyists, volunteers, and

           individuals stand on equal footing with companies and large

           organizations.  Vendor neutrality is simply not enough — as

           that merely makes companies equal to each other and leaves

           hobbyists and volunteers out in the cold.  To foster FOSS creation

           in this manner, we are the <a href="/projects/">non-profit home to

           dozens of member projects and initiatives</a> whom we assist to

           remain transparent and prioritize the public good in their

           development of FOSS.</p>

           <p>Furthermore, diversity and inclusion is a critical component to

           egalitarian FOSS communities.  We acknowledge that FOSS

           communities historically have struggled on these fronts and the

           myth of “pure meritocracy” so popular in FOSS circles

           willfully ignores the systemic biases in our societies and

           cultures.  We are thus the proud home of

           the <a href="https://outreachy.org/">Outreachy initiative</a> that

           offers paid internships in FOSS for contributors who have faced

           systemic bias in their efforts to join the FOSS community.<p>

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<h1 id="ourwork">Conservancy's Copyleft Compliance Projects</h1>

<p>As existing donors and sustainers know, the Software Freedom Conservancy

  is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charity registered in New York, and Conservancy

  helps people take control of their computing by growing the software

  freedom movement, supporting community-driven alternatives to proprietary

  software, and defending free software with practical initiatives.

  Conservancy accomplishes these goals with various initiatives, including

  defending and upholding the rights of software users and consumers under

  copyleft licenses, such as the GPL.</p>

<p>Free and open source software (FOSS) is everywhere and in everything; yet

our software freedom is constantly eroded.  With the help of its

volunteers, <a href="/members/current/">member projects</a>,

and <a href="/about/staff/">staff</a>, Conservancy stands up for users'

software freedom via its copyleft compliance work.</p>

<p>Conservancy's primary work in copyleft compliance currently focuses on

our <a href="/copyleft-compliance/enforcement-strategy.html">Strategic GPL

Enforcement Initiative</a>.  This initiative, <a href="/news/2020/oct/01/new-copyleft-strategy-launched-with-ARDC-grant/">launched in October 2020</a>,

represents the culmination of nearly 15 years of compliance work of

Conservancy spanning ten different fiscally sponsored projects, past lawsuits

against more than a dozen defendants, and hundreds of non-litigation

compliance actions.</p>

<p>For these many years, Conservancy has always given the benefit of the

  doubt to companies who exploited our good nature and ultimately simply

  ignore the rights of users and consumers.  In that time, the compliance

  industrial complex has risen to a multi-million-dollar industry —

  selling (mostly proprietary) products, services, and consulting to

  companies.  Yet, these compliance efforts ignore consistently the most

  essential promise of copyleft — the complete, Corresponding Source

  and “the scripts used to control compilation and installation of the

  executable&rdquo;.</p>

<p>We encourage our sustainers and software freedom enthusiasts everywhere to

  <a href="/copyleft-compliance/enforcement-strategy.html">read our detailed

  strategic plan for GPL enforcement</a> and its companion

  project, <a href="/copyleft-compliance/firmware-liberation.html">our

    Firmware Liberation Project</a>.</p>

<h2 id="projects">Compliance Relationship to Fiscally Sponsored Projects</h2>

<p>Historically, Conservancy was well-known for its ongoing license

compliance efforts on behalf of its BusyBox member project.  Today,

Conservancy does semi-regular compliance work for its BusyBox, Git, Inkscape,

Mercurial, Samba, QEMU and Wine member projects.  If you are a copyright

{% block subtitle %}Copyleft Compliance Projects - {% endblock %}

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<h1>Software Freedom Conservancy files right-to-repair lawsuit against California TV manufacturer Vizio Inc. for alleged GPL violations</h1>

<h2>Litigation is historic in nature due to its focus on consumer rights, filing as third-party beneficiary</h2>

<p><strong>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</strong></p>

<p>IRVINE, Calif. (Oct. 19, 2021) Software Freedom Conservancy announced today

it has filed a lawsuit against Vizio Inc. for what it calls repeated failures

to fulfill even the basic requirements of the General Public License (GPL).</p>

<p>The lawsuit alleges that Vizio’s TV products, built on its SmartCast system,

contain software that Vizio unfairly appropriated from a community of

developers who intended consumers to have very specific rights to modify,

improve, share, and reinstall modified versions of the software.</p>

<p>The GPL is a copyleft license that ensures end users the freedom to run,

study, share, and modify the software. Copyleft is a kind of software

licensing that leverages the restrictions of copyright, but with the intent

to promote sharing (using copyright licensing to freely use and repair

software).</p>

<p>Software Freedom Conservancy, a nonprofit organization focused on ethical

technology, is filing the lawsuit as the purchaser of a product which has

copylefted code. This approach makes it the first legal case that focuses on

the rights of individual consumers as third-party beneficiaries of the GPL.

<p>&ldquo;That’s what makes this litigation unique and historic in terms of

defending consumer rights,” says Karen M. Sandler, the organization’s

executive director.</p>

<p>According to the lawsuit, a consumer of a product such as this has the

right to access the source code so that it can be modified, studied, and

redistributed (under the appropriate license conditions).</p>

<p>&ldquo;We are asking the court to require Vizio to make good on its

  obligations under copyleft compliance requirements,” says

  Sandler. She explains that in past litigation, the plaintiffs have always

  been copyright holders of the specific GPL code. In this case, Software

  Freedom Conservancy hopes to demonstrate that it's not just the copyright

  holders, but also the receivers of the licensed code who are entitled to

  rights.</p>

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<h1 id="contribution-and-similarity-analysis-of-christoph-hellwigs-linux-code-as-found-in-vmware-esxi-5.5">Contribution and Similarity Analysis of Christoph Hellwig's Linux Code as found in VMware ESXi 5.5</h1>

<p>This analysis verifies by reproducible analysis a set of specific contributions that are clearly made by Christoph Hellwig to Linux, and shows how those contributions appear in the VMware ESXi 5.5 product.</p>

<p>This analysis was prepared and written by <a href="/about/staff/#bkuhn">Bradley M. Kuhn</a>.</p>

<h1 id="understanding-code-similarity-and-cloning">Understanding Code Similarity and &quot;Cloning&quot;</h1>

<p>Software is often modified in various ways; indeed, Linux developers form a community that encourages and enables modification by many parties. Given this development model, communities often find it valuable to determine when software source code moves from one place to another with only minor modifications. Various scientifically-vetted techniques can be used to identify &quot;clones&quot; -- a portion of code that is substantially similar to pre-existing source code. The specific area of academic research is called &quot;code cloning detection&quot; or &quot;code duplication detection&quot;. The area has been under active research since the mid-1990s <a href="#fn1" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref1"><sup>1</sup></a>. In 2002, Japanese researchers published a tool called CCFinder <a href="#fn2" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref2"><sup>2</sup></a>, which, in its updated incarnation (called CCFinderX), is widely used and referenced by academic researchers in the field <a href="#fn3" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref3"><sup>3</sup></a> and has specifically been used to explore reuses of code in GPL'd software such as Linux <a href="#fn4" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref4"><sup>4</sup></a>.</p>

<p>CCFinderX uses a token-based clone detection method and a suffix-tree matching algorithm; both techniques have been highly vetted and considered in the academic literature. The techniques are considered viable and useful in detecting clones. Many academic papers on the subject have been peer-reviewed and published, and nearly every newly published paper compares its new techniques of clone detection to the seminal results found by CCFinderX. For purposes of our analysis, we have therefore chosen to use CCFinderX. These results can be easily reproduced since CCFinderX is, itself, also Open Source software.</p>

<h1 id="establishing-a-baseline-of-the-ccfinderx-tool">Establishing A Baseline of the CCFinderX Tool</h1>

<p>CCFinderX offers many statistics for clone detection. After expert analysis, we concluded that most relevant to this situation is the &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; between the existing code and the new code. To establish a baseline, we considered two different comparisons of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). First, we compared the Linux kernel, Version 4.5.2, to the FreeBSD kernel, Version 10.3.0. This comparison was inspired by the similar 2002 study <a href="#fn5" class="footnoteRef" id="fnref5"><sup>5</sup></a> of these two large C programs. The hypothesis remained that CCFinderX would encounter a low but significant percentage of code similarity, since the FreeBSD and Linux projects collaborate on some subprojects and willingly share code under the 3-Clause BSD license for those parts. (These collaborations are public and well-documented.)</p>

<p>The experiment confirmed the hypothesis. We found that a 3.68% &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; when comparing code from Linux to the FreeBSD kernel.</p>

<p>Next, we compared the source code of the Linux Kernel 4.5.2 to the LLVM+Clang system, version 3.8.0. These two projects are each a large program that are not known to actively share code. There may be some very minimal similarity simply due to chance, but something much lower than the 3.68% found between Linux and FreeBSD's kernel.</p>

<p>Indeed, when the same test is run to compare Linux to the LLVM+Clang system, the &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; was 0.075%.</p>

<h1 id="general-comparison-of-linux-kernel-to-vmware-sources">General Comparison of Linux Kernel to VMware sources</h1>

<p>With the baseline established, we now begin relevant comparisons. First, we compare the Linux kernel version 2.6.34 to the sources <a href="https://k.sfconservancy.org/vmkdrivers">released by VMware in their (partial) source release</a>. The &quot;ratio of similarity&quot; between Linux 2.6.34 and VMware's partial source release is 20.72%. There is little question that much of VMware's kernel has come from Linux.</p>

<h1 id="methodology-of-showing-hellwigs-contributions-in-vmware-esxi-5.5-sources">Methodology Of Showing Hellwig's Contributions in VMware ESXi 5.5 Sources</h1>

<p>The following describes a methodology to show Hellwig's contributions to Linux, and how they compare to code found in VMware ESXi 5.5.</p>

<h2 id="extracting-hellwigs-contributions-from-linux-historical-repository">Extracting Hellwig's Contributions From Linux Historical Repository</h2>

<p>Excellent records exist of contributions made to Linux from 2002-02-04 through present date. From 2002-02-04 through 2005-04-03, Bitkeeper was used to store revision control history of Linux. Each improvement contributed to Linux has information regarding who placed the contribution in Linux, and a comment field in which the contributor can credit others, such as by noting that the contribution actually came from someone else.</p>

<p>I extracted from the historical Linux tree the identifying number of all commits that are either made with Hellwig in the official Author field, or where the person in the Author field left notes clearly indicating that the contribution was done by Hellwig. For the latter, the following regular expression search against the log file was used:</p>

<pre><code>(Submitted\s+by|original\s+patch|patch\s+(from|by)|originally\s+(from|by)).*Hellwig</code></pre>

<p>Specifically, I used <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx">a script</a> to extract a list of commit ids from the <a href="git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tglx/history.git">historical Linux repository</a>. This method found 1,012 separate occasions of contribution by Hellwig from 2002-02-04 through 2005-04-03.</p>

<p>After finding these separate occasions of contribution, I then extracted the source code lines that Hellwig added or changed in each contribution in this repository. I did so by carefully cross-referencing the commits that Hellwig performed with the output of <code>git blame</code>. I specifically <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/extract-code-added-in-commits.plx">wrote a script</a> to carefully extracted only lines that Hellwig changed or added in that repository, and placed only those contributions identifiable as Hellwig's into new files whose named matched the original filenames. This created a corpus of code that can be verifiable as added or changed by Hellwig and no one else.</p>

<p>Here are the specific commands I ran:</p>

<pre><code>$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tglx/history.git linux-historical

$ ./commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx `pwd`/linux-historical/.git Hellwig '(Submitted\s+by|originals+patch|patch\s+from|originally\s+by).*' > hellwig-historical.ids

$ ./extract-code-added-in-commits.plx --repository=`pwd`/linux-historical --output-dir=`pwd`/hellwig-historical --central-commit e7e173af42dbf37b1d946f9ee00219cb3b2bea6a --progress --blame-opts=-M --blame-opts=-C < ./hellwig-historical.ids

$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git linux-current

$ ./commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx `pwd`/linux-current/.git Hellwig '(Submitted\s+by|original\s+patch|patch\s+(from|by)|originally\s+(from|by)).*' > ./hellwig-current.ids

$ ./extract-code-added-in-commits.plx --progress --repository=`pwd`/linux-current --output-dir=`pwd`/hellwig-through-2.6.34 --fork-limit=14 --blame-opts=-M  --blame-opts=-M --blame-opts=-C --blame-opts=-C --central-commit e40152ee1e1c7a63f4777791863215e3faa37a86   &lt; hellwig-current.ids </code></pre>

<p>Note: e40152ee1e1c7a63f4777791863215e3faa37a86 is the 2.6.34 version created by Linus Torvalds <script type="text/javascript">

<!--

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</script><noscript>&#116;&#x6f;&#114;&#118;&#x61;&#108;&#100;&#x73;&#32;&#x61;&#116;&#32;&#108;&#x69;&#110;&#x75;&#120;&#x2d;&#102;&#x6f;&#x75;&#110;&#100;&#x61;&#116;&#x69;&#x6f;&#110;&#32;&#100;&#x6f;&#116;&#32;&#x6f;&#114;&#x67;</noscript> on 2010-05-16 14:17:36 -0700, with Git commit comment: &quot;Linus 2.6.34&quot;.</p>

<h2 id="comparing-hellwigs-contributions-from-linux-historical-repository-to-vmware-sources">Comparing Hellwig's Contributions From Linux Historical Repository to VMware Sources</h2>

<p>I then used this corpus as input to CCFinderX (similar to the other CCFinderX comparisons explained earlier). Specifically, this CCFinderX comparison compared all known Hellwig-contributed material from the historical Linux repository to the partial VMware source release. CCFinderX found a ratio of similarity of 0.0900% between Hellwig's code and the source code in VMware's (partial) source release. CCFinderX specifically identified 12 distinct locations where substantial sections of code contributed by Hellwig appeared in VMware's code.</p>

<p>Most notably, substantial portions of the the following core SCSI functions were found by this search technique: <code>__scsi_device_lookup</code> and <code>__scsi_get_command</code>, <code>mpt_get_product_name</code>, <code>scsi_proc_host_rm</code>, <code>mega_enum_raid_scsi</code>, <code>mega_m_to_n</code>, <code>mega_prepare_passthru</code>, <code>proc_scsi_show</code>, and <code>__down_read_trylock</code>.</p>

<h2 id="extracting-hellwigs-contributions-from-modern-linux-repository">Extracting Hellwig's Contributions From Modern Linux Repository</h2>

<p>Beginning on 2005-04-16, Linux began using the new Git system to store revision history. This history can be analyzed in a similar fashion as was done for the historical repository.</p>

<p>In this case, I picked a specific revision to center the analysis, the Linux 2.6.34 release from 2010-05-16. For the period from 2005-04-16 through 2010-05-16, I extracted from the modern Linux tree the identifying number of all commits that are either made with Hellwig in the official Author field, or where the person in the Author field left notes clearly indicating that the contribution was done by Hellwig. For the latter, the following regular expression search against the log file was used (as before):</p>

<pre><code>(Submitted\s+by|original\s+patch|patch\s+(from|by)|originally\s+(from|by)).*Hellwig</code></pre>

<p>Specifically, I used the <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/commit-id-list-matching-regex.plx">same script as before</a> to now extract a list of commit ids from the <a href="git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git">modern Linux repository</a>. This method found 2,595 separate occasions of contribution by Hellwig from 2005-04-16 through 2010-05-16.</p>

<p>As before, after finding these separate occasions of contribution, I then extracted the source code lines that Hellwig added or changed in each contribution in this repository. I did so by carefully cross-referencing the commits that Hellwig performed with the output of <code>git blame</code>. I specifically <a href="https://github.com/conservancy/gpl-compliance-tools/blob/master/extract-code-added-in-commits.plx">used the same script as before</a> to carefully extracted only lines that Hellwig changed or added in that repository, and placed only those contributions identifiable as Hellwig's into new files whose named matched the original filenames. This created a corpus of code that can be verifiable as added or changed by Hellwig and no one else.</p>

<h2 id="comparing-hellwigs-contributions-from-modern-linux-repository-to-vmware-sources">Comparing Hellwig's Contributions From Modern Linux Repository to VMware Sources</h2>

<p>I then used this corpus as input to CCFinderX again. Specifically, this CCFinderX comparison compared all known Hellwig-contributed material from the modern Linux repository to the partial VMware source release. CCFinderX found a ratio of similarity of 0.1615% between Hellwig's code and the source code in VMware's (partial) source release was contributed by Hellwig. CCFinderX specifically identified 23 distinct locations where substantial sections of code contributed by Hellwig appeared. These 23 locations are found in the following 19 functions: <code>mptsas_init</code>, <code>mptsas_get_linkerrors</code>, <code>megasas_build_and_issue_cmd</code>, <code>cciss_getgeo</code>, <code>mptsas_get_bay_identifier</code>, <code>phy_to_ioc</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_enclosure_pg0</code>, <code>SendIocInit</code>, <code>mptsas_parse_device_info</code>, <code>csmisas_sas_device_pg0</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_io_unit_pg0</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_io_unit_pg1</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_expander_pg1</code>, <code>mptsas_sas_enclosure_pg0</code>, <code>aac_handle_aif</code>, <code>mptsas_get_bay_identifier</code>, <code>mpt_host_page_alloc</code>, <code>mptsas_probe_one_phy</code>.</p>

<h2 id="changed-and-added-lines-create-an-incomplete-picture">Changed And Added Lines Create an Incomplete Picture</h2>

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<h2>The time has come to stand up for the GPL.</h2>

<p><strong>Update 2019-04-02:</strong> Please

  see <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2019/apr/02/vmware-no-appeal/">this

  announcement regarding conclusion of the VMware suit in Germany</a>.  Since the suit has

  concluded, any funds you donate here will support our ongoing compliance efforts.  The

  remaining material below is left as it was before that announcement:</p>

<p><em>In March 2015, Conservancy <a href="/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">announced Christoph Hellwig's

    lawsuit against VMware in Germany</a>.  In July 2016,

    we <a href="/news/2016/aug/09/vmware-appeal/">announced that Christoph

    would appeal the lower court's ruling</a>.</p>

    Support Conservancy's and Christoph's efforts in this area

    by <a href="/sustainer/">becoming a Conservancy

    sustainer</a> or <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donating via

    the link on the right</a>.</em></p>

<p>We were told to ask nicely and repeatedly, so we did.</p>

<p>We asked allies to help us make contact in friendly and professional

  ways.</p>

<p>Everyone asked us to give companies as many chances as possible and as

  much help as possible to comply with copyleft, so we did.</p>

<p>We've worked for years to help VMware comply with the GPL, but they

refuse. Negotiations broke down for the last time when they insisted on an 

NDA just to discuss settlement terms!</p>

<p>Christoph is among the most active developers of Linux.  As of Feburary 

19, 2015, Christoph has contributed 279,653 lines of code to the Linux kernel, 

and ranks 20th among the 1,340 developers involved in the latest 3.19 kernel 

release.  Christoph also

ranks 4th among those who have reviewed third-party source code, tirelessly

corrected and commented on other developers' contributions.  Christoph

licenses his code to the public under the terms of the GPL for practical and

ideological reasons.  VMware, a company with net revenue of over $1 billion

and over 14,000 employees, ignored Christoph's choice.  They took Christoph's

code from Linux and modified it to work with their own kernel without releasing

source code of the resulting complete work.  This is precisely the kind of

activity Christoph and other kernel developers seek to prevent by choosing

the GPL.  The GPL was written to prevent this specific scenario!</p>

<h3>This is a matter of principle.</h3>

<p>Free and open source software is everywhere and in everything; yet our

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<h1>Frequently Asked Questions about Christoph Hellwig's VMware Lawsuit</h1>

<p><strong>Update 2019-04-02:</strong> Please

  see <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2019/apr/02/vmware-no-appeal/">this

  announcement regarding conclusion of the VMware suit in Germany</a>.  Since the suit has

  concluded, any funds you donate here will support our ongoing compliance efforts.  The

  remaining material below is left as it was before that announcement:</p>

<p>Conservancy maintains this

  <abbr title="Frequently Asked Questions">FAQ</abbr> list regarding

  <a href="/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware

  in Germany over alleged GPL violations on Linux</a> as a service to the

  Free Software community, and in particular, the copyleft community.  Conservancy

  realizes this lawsuit generates many questions and interest

  from the community.  Legal counsel (both Conservancy's own, and

  Christoph's lawyer, Till Jaeger) correctly advise us to limit our public

  comments regarding specific details of the case while litigation remains

  pending in court.  Nevertheless, Conservancy, as a

  non-profit charity serving the public good, seeks to be as transparent as

  possible.  If you have additional questions you'd like to see answered

  here, please <a href="mailto:info@sfconservancy.org">email

  &lt;info@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>, but understand that we may often need

  to answer: <q>We cannot comment on this while litigation is pending</q>.</p>

<details>

  <summary>Who is the Plaintiff in the lawsuit?</summary>

  <p>Christoph is one of most active developers of the Linux kernel. He has

   contributed 279,653 lines of code to the latest Linux 3.19 kernel, and

   thus ranks 20th among the 1,340 developers involved in that release.

   Christoph also ranks 4th among those who have reviewed third-party source

   code, and he has tirelessly corrected and commented on other developers'

   contributions.</p>

</details>

</details>

<details>

  <summary id="court-documents">Are the court documents released?</summary>

  <p>Not currently.  Court proceedings are not public by default in Germanyg (unlike in the USA).  Conservancy will continue to update this FAQ with

  information that Conservancy knows about the case.  We would all also

  welcome an agreement with VMware whereby both sides would agree to publish

  all Court documents.  Unfortunately, VMware has explicitly asked for the

  filings not to be published.   Accordingly, Conservancy itself has not

  even been able to review VMware's statement of defense nor Christoph's

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{% extends "base_learn.html" %}

{% block subtitle %}Press Kit - {% endblock %}

{% block content %}

<h1 id="PressInformation">Press Kit</h1>

<p>Here's a collection of documents (collated and individual) for distribution

   and reference.</p>

<p><a href="#fixme">Full Press Kit</a></p>

<p><a href="#fixme">Press Release</a></p>

<p><a href="#fixme">Glossary</a></p>

<p><a href="#fixme">Q&A</a></p>

<p><a href="#fixme">Quotes</a></p>

{% endblock %}

{% block subtitle %}Press - {% endblock %}

{% block content %}

<h1 id="QandA">Vizio Lawsuit Q &amp; A</h1>

<a href="https://shoestring.agency/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SFC_QA_GeneralPublic.pdf">[

         A PDF version of this Q&amp;A is available. ]</a>

<h3 id="">Q: Who is the defendant in this lawsuit?</h3>

<p>The defendant is Vizio, Inc., a U.S.-based TV maker and media company that has been publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange since March 2021.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: What did Vizio do wrong?</h3>

<p>The lawsuit alleges that Vizio’s TV products, built on its SmartCast system, contain software that Vizio unfairly appropriated from a community of developers who intended consumers to have very specific rights to modify, improve, share, and reinstall modified versions of the software.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: So, Vizio didn’t create SmartCast?</h3>

<p>It appears from extensive research that the core components of SmartCast were not created by Vizio, but rather, are based on various components licensed to the public under free and open-source software (FOSS) licenses. Most notably, many of the programs that are part of the SmartCast system are licensed under the GPL.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: What is copyleft?</h3>

<p>Copyleft is a term used to describe a license that uses the rights granted under copyright—not to restrict usage, but instead to ensure that the software is always shared freely.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: What is FOSS? </h3>

<p>“FOSS” stands for free and open-source software that allows for software freedom. “Software freedom” means the freedom of a user to run, study, (re)distribute, and (re)install (modified) versions of a piece of software. More generally, it is the idea that we are entitled to rights when using software and there should be equal protections for privacy and redistribution. The rights should treat everyone equally: big businesses and individual consumers and users alike.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: I thought FOSS allowed companies to simply take software from the commons and put it into their products whenever they wanted? Isn’t that the whole point of FOSS—for companies to get components for their products and lower their cost of production?</h3>

<p>While that is the main advantage that big corporations get from FOSS, it was never the primary impetus behind FOSS. Particularly through special licensing terms like the GPL, this licensing approach creates an egalitarian community of users, developers, and consumers. When functioning correctly, each individual and organization that participates in FOSS stands on equal footing with everyone else. Licenses like the GPL have rules to assure everyone's rights in that ecosystem are treated with equal respect and reverence. This is why compliance with these rules is important and we must stand up against companies who refuse to comply. </p>

<h3 id="">Q: But, I'm not a software developer. Why should I care at all that Vizio won’t let me modify and reinstall GPL’d components in its SmartCast system?</h3>

<p>Right-to-repair software is essential for everyone, even if you don't know how to make the repairs yourself. Once upon a time, we had lots of local vendors that could repair and fix TVs when they broke.  That’s because TVs were once analog hardware devices that could be taken apart and understood merely by inspection from someone with the sufficient knowledge. TVs today are simply a little computer attached to a large display. As such, the most important part that needs repairs is usually when the software malfunctions, has bugs, or otherwise needs upgrades and changes. The GPL was specifically designed to assure such fixes could be done, and that consumers (or agents those consumers hire on the open market) can make such repairs and changes. </p>

<h3 id="">Q: Alright, that makes sense, but I’m happy with Vizio’s SmartCast right now. What difference does it make to me if Vizio won’t give me the rights under the GPL?</h3>

<p>Time and time again, companies stop supporting the software build for the device long before the computer inside the device fails. In other words, these devices are built for planned premature obsolescence. </p>

<p>By refusing to comply with the pro-consumer terms of the GPL, Vizio has the power to disable your TV at any time it wants, over your internet connection, without your knowledge or consent. If Vizio complied with the GPL, all would not be lost in this scenario: volunteers and third-party entities could take GPL’d software as a basis for a replacement for SmartCast. Without these rights, consumers are essentially forced to purchase new devices when they could be repaired.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: Creation of a replacement for SmartCast seems far-fetched to me. After all, most of the software in SmartCast is not actually GPL’d, only a portion of the components and programs are GPL’d.  How will Vizio's compliance with the GPL actually lead to an alternative firmware?</h3>

<p>Years ago, people said the very same thing about wireless routers, which had only partially GPL'd firmwares. However, thanks to actions to enforce the GPL in the wireless router market, the OpenWrt project was born! That project is now the premiere replacement software for wireless routers from almost every major manufacturer on the market. There is now healthy competition and even occasional cooperation between a hobbyist and community-led firmware project and the wireless router manufacturers. We believe the same can happen for TVs, but the first step is assuring the entire TV market complies with the GPL.</p>

<h3 id="">Q: What indications do you have that compliance with the GPL will be a catalyst for alternative firmwares?</h3>

<p>Beyond the OpenWrt example, Software Freedom Conservancy sued 14 defendants for GPL violations in 2009, including Samsung for its 2009-era TV models. Thanks to the source release that was achieved through the settlement of that lawsuit, a community-led SamyGo project was created for that era of TVs. (source)</p>

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            <li class="VizioPressRelease"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html">Press Release</a></li>

            <li class="VizioComplaint"><a href="/docs/software-freedom-conservancy-v-vizio-complaint-2021-10-19.pdf">Complaint</a></li>

            <li class="VizioQandA"><a href="/press/qanda.html">Q&amp;A</a></li>

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            <li class="VizioPressKit"><a href="/docs/software-freedom-conservancy-v-vizio-announce-press-kit.pdf">Press Kit</a></li>

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            <li class="CopyleftPrinciples"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/principles.html">Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement</a></li>

            <li class="LiberateFirmware"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/firmware-liberation.html">Liberate IoT Firmware via GPL Enforcement</a></li>

            <li class="PastLawsuits"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/past-lawsuits.html">Previous Copyleft Litigation</a></li>

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  <details>

    <summary>Support Now!</summary>

    <h3>Support Copyleft Enforcement Now!</h3>

    <p>

      To support our copyleft compliance & enforcement work,

      please <a href="/sustainer/#annual"><span class="donate-box-highlight">become a Conservancy

      Sustainer <strong>right now</strong></span></a>.  We can't sustain

      this work without ongoing support from donors like you!</p>

  </details>

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