{% block subtitle %}GPL Compliance Project For Linux Developers - {% endblock %}

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

{% block content %}

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

<p>Conservancy maintains this

  <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

   findings, Christoph began his own investigation and confirmed

   Conservancy's compliance conclusions.  Christoph then began his own

   enforcement effort with legal representation from Till Jaeger.  Christoph has

   been unable to achieve compliance, either, through his negotiations in

   2014.  VMware's last offer was a proposal for a settlement agreement that VMware would

   only provide if Christoph signed an NDA, and Christoph chose (quite

 <p>Thus, this lawsuit comes after years of negotiations by Conservancy to

 achieve compliance — negotiations that ended in an outright refusal by

 VMware's lawyers to comply.  Those events were then followed by a year of

   work by Christoph and Till to achieve compliance in a separate action.</p>

</div>

<div style="align:left;width:80%;">

  <h1><img class="appeal-header" alt="Become a Conservancy Supporter!" src="/img/conservancy-supporter-header.png"/></h1>

<p>Software Freedom Conservancy is an essential organization to free and

open source software. We are the home of over

<a href="/members/current/">30 projects</a> like 

<a href="http://git-scm.org">Git</a>,

<a href="http://inkscape.org">Inkscape</a>, <a href="http://samba.org">Samba</a>,

<a href="http://winehq.org">Wine</a>, <a href="http://www.seleniumhq.org/">Selenium</a>, the <a href="/linux-compliance/">GPL Compliance Project for Linux

contribute to the cause.</p>

<img alt="*** The Conservancy T-Shirt that Supporters Receive ***" class="appeal" src="/img/conservancy-t-shirt.jpg"/>

<p>For the first time, we're launching a Supporter

program. For <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">an annual donation of $120</a>, you can

this is out of reach, please donate at whatever level you can - it makes a

big difference to us to know that you <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">support us</a>, and a little goes a long

way.</p>

<p>In addition to supporting our projects,

<ul>

<a 

href="https://gitorious.org/conservancy/policies/source/master:">

internal policies</a> are published and available for scrutiny.</p>

<p>Please <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">join our Supporter program</a> and spread software freedom!</p>

<div class="supporter-type-selector">

<hr/>

  <strong>Become a Supporter Now:</strong>  <a id="annualSelector" href="#annual">Annual</a> | <a id="monthlySelector" href="#monthly">Monthly</a></div>

<div id="annual" class="supporter-type-selection">

<h3>Join as an Annual Supporter</h3>

<a id="annual"></a>

$<span id="fundraiser-so-far">0</span>

of $<span id="fundraiser-goal">50,000</span> match met.<br/>

<div id="progressbar" style="height:20px;"><span id="fundraiser-percentage" style="float:right; align:center; margin-right:40%"></span></div>

<p>Donate now via PayPal:

<!-- PayPal start -->

<form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post" target="_top">

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

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

<input type="image" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donateCC_LG.gif" style="border:0" name="submit" alt="PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">

<img alt="" style="border:0" src="https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width="1" height="1">

</form>

<!-- PayPal end -->

<p>Or, <a href="/supporter/#annual"><strong>become a Conservancy

      Supporter</strong></a>.</p>

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

</div>

<div style="align:left;width:80%;">

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

            <h2>Our GPL {% block category %}Compliance{% endblock %} Work</h2>

            <ul>

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

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

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

            <li class="AboutCompliance"><a href="/linux-compliance/about.html">About GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers</a></li>

            </ul>

         </div>

               <div id="mainContent">{% block content %}{% endblock %}

               </div>

</div></div>