This list is a very useful resource for us to discuss GPL violations where the companies aren't acting properly. However, I'd like restate advice I've been giving for years now: contacting a company privately regarding GPL compliance issues is always the best first step. It seems that most on this list *aren't* doing that. Please, don't play "gotcha" over GPL violations; it makes it *harder* for those of us who enforce the GPL, not easier.
This is a point I've often made in my 15 years of GPL enforcement work, but it bears repeating often, because so often, people want to "go public" quickly, which just isn't the most productive way to work on GPL enforcement. I've written blogs about this issue in the past, FWIW: http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2009/11/08/gpl-enforcement.html http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2012/09/17/gpl-compliance.html The most salient quote on this point is what I wrote on 2009-11-08: Don't go public first. Back around late 1999, when I found my first GPL violation from scratch, I wanted to post it to every mailing list I could find and shame that company that failed to respect and cooperate with the software freedom community. I'm glad that I didn't do that, because I've since seen similar actions destroy the lines of communication with violators, and make resolution tougher. Indeed, I believe that if the Cisco/Linksys violations had not been a center of public ridicule in 2003 when I (then at the FSF) was in the midst of negotiating with them for compliance, we would not have ended up with such a long saga to resolution. -- bkuhn
