Software Freedom Conservance (SFC) reported a new round of trial with Vizio, accused of non -fulfilling the requirements of the GPL license when distributing firmware to smart TVs based on the Smartcast platform. Representatives of the SFC have achieved the return of the case from the US Federal Court to the California District Court, which is of fundamental importance from the point of view of the assignment of GPL not only to copyright objects, but also to the field of contractual relations.
Earlier, Vizio has achieved the transfer of the case to the Federal Court, which is authorized to resolve issues related to copyright violations. The case under consideration is notable for the fact that for the first time in history it was submitted not on behalf of the participant in the development, which owns property rights to the code, but on the part of the consumer who did not provide the initial texts of the components distributed under the GPL license. By shifting the GPL consideration in the field of copyright, Vizio builds its defense on an attempt to prove that consumers are not beneficiaries and do not have the right to file such claims. Those. Vizio is seeking to close the case on the basis of the illegality of filing a lawsuit, without touching the dispute of the charges of violation of the GPL.
Representatives of the SFC organization are repelled from the fact that the GPL has elements of the contract and the consumer to whom the license provides certain rights, is its participant and may require the execution of their rights to receive the derivative product code. The consent of the federal court to return the case in the district court confirms the possibility of applying the legislation on contractual relations to violation of the GPL (trial of copyright violations are carried out in federal courts, and violation of the contract in districts).
The judge who was analyzing the case Josephine Staiton refused to reject the claim that the plaintiff is not a beneficiary of the author’s violation, since the execution of an additional contractual contract in the GPL license
The obligations are separated from the rights granted by the laws on copyright. The decision on the return of the case in the district court noted that the GPL acts simultaneously as a license to use the work protected by the copyright, and as a contract agreement.