{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

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

{% block submenuselection %}VMwareLawsuitAppeal{% endblock %}

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

<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="/supporter/">becoming a Conservancy

    supporter</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

  software freedom is constantly eroded.</p>

<p>We want companies to incorporate our software into new products, but there

are a few simple rules.  Copylefted free software is so prevalent because

there's no way a company can compete without using a significant amount of

free software to bring products to market in reasonable time. They get so

much benefit from our work.  Allowing the whole community to review, use,

improve and work with the code seems very little to ask in return.  Copyleft

also ensures competitors cannot undercut those who contribute.  Without active enforcement, the GPL is

{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

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

{% block submenuselection %}VMwareLawsuitFAQ{% endblock %}

{% block content %}

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

<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>

<dl>

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

  <dd>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.</dd>

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

  <dd>Not currently.  Court proceedings are not public by default in Germany

  (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

  response to that statement of defense.</dd>

  <dt id="funding">Who's funding this lawsuit?</dt>

  <dd>Conservancy has engaged in a grant agreement with Christoph Hellwig for

  the purposes of pursuing this specific legal action in Germany.

  Conservancy is funding this legal action specifically as part of

  Conservancy's program activity in

  its <a href="/copyleft-compliance/about.html">GPL Compliance

  Project for Linux Developers</a>.</dd>

  <dt id="combined-and-derivative-works">Is this the Great Test Case of Combined / Derivative Works?</dt>

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<tr><td style="text-align:center;padding:10px;padding-bottom:10px;">

<div id="donate-box" class="toggle-unit"><h1 class="toggle-content">Support

    Now!</h1></div>

<h3>Support Compliance Now!</h3>

<p>

  To support our copyleft compliance work,

  please&hellip; </p>

<p><span class="donate-box-highlight">Donate now via PayPal:</span>

</p>

<!-- PayPal start -->

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<input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_s-xclick">

<input type="hidden" name="hosted_button_id" value="4ZKJN4F9BMFAS">

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<p>Or, <a href="/supporter/#annual"><span class="donate-box-highlight">become a Conservancy

      Supporter</span></a> (&mdash; a better option if you're donating more

      than $120, since you'll get a t-shirt!).</p>

</td></tr></table>

</div>

<div class="content-with-donate-sidebar">

    <div id="container">

         <div id="sidebar" class="{% block submenuselection %}other{% endblock %}">

            <h2>Our Copyleft {% block category %}Compliance{% endblock %} Projects</h2>

            <ul>

            <li class="AboutCompliance"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/about.html">About</a></li>

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

            <li class="VMwareLawsuitAppeal"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-appeal.html">Stand Up For GPL!</a></li>

            <li><a href="/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">VMware Lawsuit: Original Press Release</a></li>

            <li><a href="/news/2016/aug/09/vmware-appeal/">VMware Lawsuit: Announcement of Appeal</a></li>

            <li class="VMwareLawsuitFAQ"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">

                <abbr title="Frequently Asked Questions">FAQ</abbr> on VMware Lawsuit</a></li>

            <li class="VMwareCodeSimilarity"><a href="/copyleft-compliance/vmware-code-similarity.html">VMware's &amp; Christoph's Code Similarity Analysis</a></li>

            <li class="CopyleftOrg"><a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a></li>

            </ul>

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