[lugm.org] Fwd: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme Court of Mauritius

Tue Jun 28 14:53:32 UTC 2011

Aadil would be right on that. One doesn't need to be a lawyer to point out
something. We are not getting involved, we shall be just submitting/clearing
a confusion. I'll check what can be done with a lawyer friend

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Aadil Noorkhan <aadil at lavabit.com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I agree with Ronny: we are not lawyers and not expert in FOSS licences.
>  But we should have a better understanding of those licences than most
> people and should point it to the law, while remaining neutral.
>
> Cheers,
> Aadil.
>
>
> On 6/28/2011 6:40 PM, Ronny R. wrote:
>
>> we can also make the applicant aware that we are keen to help the
>> defendant
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 6:39 PM, Ronny R.<redoverlord at gmail.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> hello
>>>
>>> my opinion is that
>>> 1. we are not lawyers
>>> 2. sending a letter to the court is of no use as we dont have any locus
>>> standi
>>> 3. we better advise defendant to counter affidavit the one of the
>>> applicant and then we can be of some help
>>> but please note that in no case can we act as expert og the GPL laws,
>>> we can provide the text and let the lawyers of the defendant analyse
>>> and show to the court.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Ronny
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 6:26 PM, Aadil Noorkhan<aadil at lavabit.com>
>>>  wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> The fraudulent statements in the affidavit are disturbing indeed.
>>>>
>>>> We should inform the Supreme Court and both parties of the misleading
>>>> statements via email and a letter, backed by solid evidence and signed
>>>> by
>>>> the LUGM managing committee, or simply the president.
>>>>
>>>> If no response is received then we sent the letter to the press.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Aadil.
>>>>
>>>> On 6/28/2011 5:24 PM, Avinash Meetoo wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>
>>>>> I have just received this email from Philip Hands in the UK referring
>>>>> to
>>>>> a case currently in the Supreme Court of Mauritius. It would seem that
>>>>> the two parties involved have different opinions on what an open source
>>>>> license really is, more specifically the GPL. Someone called Harald
>>>>> Welte has written a post on his blog on this matter.
>>>>>
>>>>> A few months ago, someone called me at work asking me about what the
>>>>> GPL
>>>>> really means but I am not sure whether he is one of the parties
>>>>> concerned.
>>>>>
>>>>> What do you think?
>>>>>
>>>>> Avinash
>>>>>
>>>>> ---
>>>>> From: *Philip Hands*<phil at hands.com<mailto:p**hil at hands.com<phil at hands.com>
>>>>> >>
>>>>> Date: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 4:01 PM
>>>>> Subject: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme Court of
>>>>> Mauritius
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi Avinash,
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm forwarding this to your mailing list in the hope that someone on
>>>>> the list knows how to inform your Supreme Court properly.  It wasn't
>>>>> clear to me if that was a subscriber-only list though, so I'm also
>>>>> sending it to you direct, as you appear to to be the founder of the
>>>>> LUG. I hope that's OK.
>>>>>
>>>>> Here is the main point from the attached mail:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://laforge.gnumonks.org/**weblog/2011/06/27/<http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/27/>
>>>>>
>>>>> in which you can see that someone from http://www.linuxsolutions.mu/
>>>>> seem to be claiming (under oath) that there is no difference between
>>>>> GPL
>>>>> licensed software, and Public Domain.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm sure that any feedback that you have would be welcome, either on
>>>>> the
>>>>> ftf-legal-bounces at fsfeurope.**org <ftf-legal-bounces at fsfeurope.org>
>>>>> <mailto:ftf-legal-bounces@**fsfeurope.org<ftf-legal-bounces at fsfeurope.org>
>>>>> >
>>>>> mailing list, or perhaps if you get in
>>>>> touch with Harald Welte<laforge at gnumonks.org
>>>>> <mailto:laforge at gnumonks.org>>**, and he can then update
>>>>> his blog (of course, you're welcome to reply to me as well).
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers, Phil.
>>>>>
>>>>> P.S. FYI I'm a long-time Debian Developer, and have hosted the Debian
>>>>> UK
>>>>> mirror (ftp.uk.debian.org<http://ftp.**uk.debian.org<http://ftp.uk.debian.org>>)
>>>>> since the mid 90's
>>>>> -- and I make occasional
>>>>> contributions to the Free Software Foundation Europe mailing list where
>>>>> this issue came up.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>>> From: Harald Welte<laforge at gnumonks.org<**mailto:laforge at gnumonks.org
>>>>> >>
>>>>> To: ftf-legal at fsfeurope.org<**mailto:ftf-legal at fsfeurope.org**>
>>>>> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:58:53 +0200
>>>>> Subject: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme Court of
>>>>> Mauritius
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> since I don't expect everyone here is following my blog, I would like
>>>>> to
>>>>> post a small notice here: http://laforge.gnumonks.org/**
>>>>> weblog/2011/06/27/ <http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/27/>
>>>>>
>>>>> The case is mostly about whether or not a freelancing contractor
>>>>> (defendant) has broken and NDA and anti-competition clauses he signed
>>>>> with the plaintiff.
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't understand all the details as I have only some of the
>>>>> documents, but for whatever reasons a "duly authorized marketing and
>>>>> sales executive" of the company ceritifed under oath that "open-source
>>>>> software like "Linux" have no copyright restrictions, which in effect
>>>>> puts no restrictions on their user or distribution".  And furthermore,
>>>>> "any work derived from the open source software [...] becomes the
>>>>>  ownership of the applicant"
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't really see how this is cloesly related to the heart of the
>>>>> case,
>>>>> but I still think it's devastating to see such an argument be made in
>>>>> front of the highest court of any (albeit small) country.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'm not sure what can be done by the outside world (e.g. us) to help
>>>>> the
>>>>> court understand that Linux as well as Asterisk are very well
>>>>> copyrighted works, and that at least Linux is only available under
>>>>> GPLv2, which has a number of conditions on its distribution.
>>>>>
>>>>> If anyone is interested in this, I have some more documetns that the
>>>>> defendant has permitted me to share (not sure if he has authority to
>>>>> permit that, but well...).
>>>>>
>>>>> (and in case you wonder, Mauritius has signed the Berne convention in
>>>>>  1989).
>>>>>
>>>>> Specifically if anyone has an interest to send some kind of
>>>>> letter/amicus curiae to the court clarifying the issue, it would be
>>>>> great.  Apparently there are arguments on the lines of "you cannot just
>>>>> download the GPL text from the internet and claim it is valid" etc.
>>>>> The Judge seemed to describe himself as 'computer illiterate'.
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe there are also some existing English legal publications that one
>>>>> could DHL/FedEx/UPS to the court ;)
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>        Harald
>>>>> --
>>>>> - Harald Welte<laforge at gnumonks.org<**mailto:laforge at gnumonks.org>>
>>>>> http://laforge.gnumonks.org/
>>>>>
>>>>> ==============================**==============================**
>>>>> ================
>>>>> "Privacy in residential applications is a desirable marketing option."
>>>>>                                                  (ETSI EN 300 175-7 Ch.
>>>>> A6)
>>>>> ______________________________**_________________
>>>>> FTF-Legal mailing list
>>>>> FTF-Legal at fsfeurope.org<**mailto:FTF-Legal at fsfeurope.org**>
>>>>> https://mail.fsfeurope.org/**mailman/listinfo/ftf-legal<https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/ftf-legal>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> |)|  Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560
>>>>> <tel:%5B%2B44%20%280%2920%**208530%209560>] http://www.hands.com/
>>>>> |-| HANDS.COM<http://HANDS.COM>  Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/
>>>>> |(|  10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London  E18 1NE  ENGLAND
>>>>>
>>>>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> *Avinash Meetoo**
>>>>> **Managing-Director of Knowledge Seven*
>>>>>
>>>>> Call me on 493-9394 (Mobile) or 464-7446 (Office)
>>>>> I am on my portal<http://www.**avinashmeetoo.com/<http://www.avinashmeetoo.com/>>,
>>>>> LinkedIn
>>>>> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/**avinashmeetoo<http://www.linkedin.com/in/avinashmeetoo>>,
>>>>> Twitter
>>>>> <http://twitter.com/**AvinashMeetoo <http://twitter.com/AvinashMeetoo>>
>>>>>  and Facebook
>>>>> <http://www.facebook.com/**avinashmeetoo<http://www.facebook.com/avinashmeetoo>
>>>>> >
>>>>> Visit Knowledge Seven<http://www.knowledge7.**com/<http://www.knowledge7.com/>>
>>>>>  and our other sister
>>>>> websites<http://www.**knowledge7.com/page/internet-**services<http://www.knowledge7.com/page/internet-services>
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ______________________________**____________________________
>>>>> Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list
>>>>> Website: http://lugm.org
>>>>> Mailing list archive: http://lugm.org/pipermail/**discuss_lugm.org/<http://lugm.org/pipermail/discuss_lugm.org/>
>>>>> Forum: http://lugm.org/forum/
>>>>> IRC: #linux.mu on Freenode
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________**____________________________
>>>> Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list
>>>> Website: http://lugm.org
>>>> Mailing list archive: http://lugm.org/pipermail/**discuss_lugm.org/<http://lugm.org/pipermail/discuss_lugm.org/>
>>>> Forum: http://lugm.org/forum/
>>>> IRC: #linux.mu on Freenode
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>> ______________________________**____________________________
>> Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list
>> Website: http://lugm.org
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>> IRC: #linux.mu on Freenode
>>
>
>
> ______________________________**____________________________
> Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list
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>

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