<dt>Why must you file a lawsuit?  Isn't there any other way to convince

    VMware to comply with GPL?</dt>

  <dd><p>Neither Conservancy nor Christoph takes this action lightly nor without

  exhausting every other possible alternative first.  This lawsuit is the

    outgrowth of years of effort to convince VMware to comply with GPL.</p>

    <p>In October 2011, Conservancy received a GPL violation report on

  BusyBox for VMware's ESXi products.  Conservancy opened the matter in its

  usual, friendly, and non-confrontational way.  Nevertheless, VMware

  immediately referred Conservancy to VMware's outside legal counsel in the

  USA, and Conservancy negotiated with VMware's legal counsel throughout

  admittedly, VMware made substantial and good efforts toward compliance on

  BusyBox.  However, VMware still refused to fix a few minor and one major

  compliance problem that we discovered during the process.  Namely, there

  was a major violation regarding Linux itself that ultimately became

  Christoph's key complaint in this lawsuit.</p>

 <p>Meanwhile, when Conservancy realized in late 2012 there might be a major

 Linux violation still present in VMware's ESXi products, Conservancy

 representatives sought every industry contact we had for assistance,

 including those from trade associations, companies (both competitors and

 collaborators with VMware), and everyone else we could think of who might be

 able to help us proceed with friendly negotiations that would achieve