{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

{% block submenuselection %}AboutCompliance{% endblock %}

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<p>The GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers is comprised of copyright

holders in the kernel, Linux, who have contributed to Linux under its

license, <a href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html">the

GPLv2</a>. These copyright holders have formally asked Conservancy to engage

in compliance efforts for their copyrights in the Linux kernel.</p>

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

compliance efforts on behalf of its BusyBox member project.  In May

2012, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2012/may/29/compliance/">Conservancy

announced a coordinated compliance effort</a> on behalf of its BusyBox and

Samba projects, and also launched this unique project, called the <cite>GPL

Compliance Project for Linux Developers</cite>, which handles compliance and

enforcement activities on behalf of more than a dozen Linux copyright

holders.</p>

<p>Conservancy's GPL Compliance Project is run in a collaborative manner with

the project developers.  All copyright holders involved have the opportunity

to give input and guidance on Conservancy's strategy in dealing with

compliance issues.  Thus, all Conservancy's compliance matter have full

support of relevant copyright holders.</p>

<p>Conservancy is dedicated to encouraging all users of software to comply

  with Free Software licenses. Toward this goal, in its compliance efforts,

  Conservancy helps distributors of Free Software in a friendly spirit of

  cooperation and participation.  In this spirit, Conservancy also sponsors

  the <a href="https://copyleft.org/guide/"><cite>Copyleft and the GNU

  General Public License:A Comprehensive Tutorial and Guide</cite></a>, in

  collaboration with the Free Software Foundation (FSF),

  which <a href="/news/2014/nov/07/copyleft-org/">Conservancy formally

  launched in fall 2014</a>.  The Guide includes tutorial materials about

  copyleft and compliance with copyleft licenses,

  including <a href="https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidepa2.html"><cite>A

  Practical Guide to GPL Compliance</cite></a>.  The materials

  on <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft.org</a> have been developed and

  improved since 2002, and are themselves copylefted, and developed

  collaboratively in public.</p>

<p>However, the Guide is admittedly a large document, so for those who are

  interested in a short summary of describing how Conservancy handles GPL

  enforcement and compliance

  work, <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2012/feb/01/gpl-enforcement/">this

  blog post outlining the compliance process</a> is likely the best source.</p>

<p>If you are aware of a license violation or compliance issue regarding

  Linux, or

  any <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">Conservancy member

  project</a> (and in particular BusyBox, Evergreen, Inkscape, Mercurial,

  Samba, Sugar Labs, or Wine),

  please <a href="mailto:compliance@sfconservancy.org">contact us by email at

  &lt;compliance@sfconservancy.org&gt;</a>.</p>

<p>Finally, Conservancy welcomes <a href="#donate-box"

  class="donate-now">donations</a> in support of the GPL Compliance Project

  for Linux Developers.  Just use the <a href="#donate-box"

  class="donate-now">PayPal link on this page or any of our other donation

  methods listed</a>.  Be sure to mention &ldquo;GPL Compliance Project for

  Linux Developers” in the memo line or description field of the

  donation.</p>

</div>

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{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

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

{% block content %}

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

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

    lawsuit against VMware in Germany</a>.  Help us meet our anonymous match to 

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

    by <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/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

effectively no different from a non-copyleft license.</p>

<p>What point is there for companies to make sure that they're compliant if

there are no consequences when the GPL is violated? Many will continue to

ignore the rules without enforcement.  We know that there are so many

companies that willingly comply and embrace GPL as part of their business.

Some are temporarily out of compliance and need to be brought up to speed,

but willingly comply once they realize there is an issue.  Sadly, VMware sits

in the rare but infamous class of perpetually non-compliant companies. VMware

has been aware of their noncompliance for years but actively refuses to do

the right thing.  Help us do right by those who take the code in the spirit

it was given and comply with copyleft, and stop those don't.</p>

<p>We know that copyleft isn't a favorite licensing strategy for some in our

community.  Even so, this case will help bring clarity on the question of

combined and derivative works, and is essential to the future of all software

freedom.  This case deserves support from copyleft and non-copyleft free

software communities alike.</p>

<h3>Show you care</h3>

<p>Bad actors have become complacent because they think you don't care.  A

  strong show of public support for Conservancy and Christoph's position will

  help our legal case and demonstrate the interpretive context for it.

  Please <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donate</a> to our campaign to enforce the GPL.  Help Conservancy

  increase its number of individual donors, so we have clear evidence to show

  bad actors that the GPL matters to the individuals in our community.

  After you <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donate</a>, go and tell the world: &ldquo;Play by the rules, @VMware. I defend the #GPL with Christoph &amp; @Conservancy. #DTRTvmware  Help at https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/ &rdquo; on your blog or microblog.

  </p>

<h3>Isn't the combined works and/or derivative works question a legal grey area?</h3>

<p>We don't think so, but this case will let the court to decide that question.

Either way, it's beneficial to our entire community to find out what the

judges think.  (Check out our <a href="/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">FAQ to find out more

information</a>.)</p>

<p>Help us pay for this expensive lawsuit and to generally defend software

  freedom and the GPL.  Help us show the world that copyleft matters.  We are excited 

  to announce that we already reached an anonymous match for this campaign, where every dollar donated 

  was matched up to $50,000. However, that $100,000 is just an initial step

  and there is so much GPL enforcement work to do.  So, please

  donate now: by becoming <a href="/supporter/">a Conservancy Supporter</a> or

  via <a href="#donate-box" class="donate-now">donate link on the right</a>.</p>

{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}

{% 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. </dd>

  <dt>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="/linux-compliance/about.html">GPL Compliance

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

  <dt>Is this the Great Test Case of Combined / Derivative Works?</dt>

  <dd>This case is specifically regarding a combined work that VMware

  allegedly created by combining their own code (“vmkernel”) with

  portions of Linux's code, which was licensed only under GPLv2.  As such,

  this, to our knowledge, marks the first time an enforcement case is

  exclusively focused on this type of legal question relating to GPL.

  However, there are so many different ways to make combined and/or

  derivative works that are covered by GPL that no single case could possibly

  include all such issues. </dd>

  <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

  late 2011, 2012 and 2013.  We exchanged and reviewed

  <a title="Complete, Corresponding Source" href="https://copyleft.org/guide/comprehensive-gpl-guidech6.html#x9-470005.2.1">CCS</a> candidates, and

  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

 compliance.  While we cannot name publicly the people we asked for help

 to convince VMware to comply, they include some of the most notable

 executives, diplomats, and engineering managers in the Linux community.  No

 one was able to assist Conservancy in convincing VMware to comply with the

 GPL.  Then, in early 2014, VMware's outside legal counsel in the USA finally

 took a clear and hard line with Conservancy stating that they would not

 comply with the GPL on Linux and argued (in our view, incorrectly) that they

 were already in compliance.</p>

 <p>Conservancy in parallel informed Christoph fully of the details of the

   Linux violation on Christoph's copyrights, and based on Conservancy's

   findings, Christoph began his own investigation and confirmed