On Tue, Apr 6, 2021 at 3:30 AM Adam Nielsen via Freedos-user <freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net> wrote: > > > I do dare to ask a dumb question, after reading several post about FSF. > > > > Can anyone explain what is FSF, i'm just a simple tech guy! > > One thing they also do - perhaps the most important in my opinion - is > that they keep companies who make use of free software honest. They > will commence legal action against companies that take advantage of > open source software by using it without complying with the licence. >[..]
More specifically, the FSF only takes issue when it's GNU stuff. For example, the FSF vs Cisco lawsuit was because "The FSF contended that code to which it held the copyright was found in the Linksys models EFG120, EFG250, NAS200, SPA400, WAG300N, WAP4400N, WIP300, WMA11B, WRT54GL, WRV200, WRV54G, and WVC54GC, and in the program QuickVPN,which is used to connect virtual private network (VPN) clients via the RV and WRV series Linksys routers." (Although that one was settled without going to court.) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation,_Inc._v._Cisco_Systems,_Inc.> For all other cases, the FSF doesn't really have a stake, and they have actively said they do not get involved in lawsuits where the FSF does not hold the copyright. In US law, only the copyright holder can claim infringement. For example, when SCO tried to sue IBM in 2017 over claims that IBM included original Unix code in Linux, the FSF did not (and could not) get involved. At best, they released a statement about it. <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/sco/sco-v-ibm.html> Jim _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
