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

kn kn at debian.mu
Wed Jun 29 19:34:40 UTC 2011 

I wonder who killed such a spicy ml. :-<>-:

 

From: discuss-bounces at lugm.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at lugm.org] On Behalf
Of Loganaden Velvindron
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 9:16 PM
To: LUGM Discuss Mailing List
Subject: Re: [lugm.org] Fwd: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme
Court of Mauritius

 


The Software Freedom Law Center is perhaps more appropriate.

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/

Incidently, there's an audio podcast concerning employment
and NDA:

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/podcast-media/FaiF_0x0D_NDAs.ogg

--- On Tue, 28/6/11, Ronny R. <redoverlord at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Ronny R. <redoverlord at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [lugm.org] Fwd: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme
Court of Mauritius
To: "LUGM Discuss Mailing List" <discuss at lugm.org>
Date: Tuesday, 28 June, 2011, 17:19

i'm ok for asking help from EFF and al.

whois al anyway? :)

Cheers

Ronny

On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 8:13 PM,  <aadil at lavabit.com> wrote:
> Apologies for the spam (SMTP server issues).
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Of course the LUGM should not get directly involved.
>>
>> How should we proceed then?  What do the others think?  Is submitting
> the documents to the defendant's lawyers the only solution?  How about
> asking for advice from the EFF and al?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Aadil.
>>
>> On 6/28/2011 7:43 PM, Ronny R. wrote:
>>> In law, standing or locus standi is the term for the ability of a party
> to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the
> law or action challenged to support that party's
>>> participation in the case
>>> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 7:41 PM, Ronny R.<redoverlord at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>>>> like i said
>>>> this is a civil case, so as long as we dont have a locus standi, we
> cannot get involved directly by submitting anything.
>>>> The only was we get involved is that the defendant use us as experts
> in FOSS laws (which we are not)
>>>> We can only get the documents and submit to the defendant's lawyers
> who will submit to the court.
>>>> I also wonder if the mauritian courts have these documents.
>>>> But definitely we cannot allow this case to cause a precedence which
> will be used in case of other future case.
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Ronny
>>>> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 7:19 PM, Aadil Noorkhan<aadil at lavabit.com>
> wrote:
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>> Indeed.  The defendant and plaintiff should seek the court's help in
> settling this argument.
>>>>> It is disturbing to note, however, that statement 5 of the affidavit
> contradicts the main points of the GPL.
>>>>> This can used as a precedence for future cases.
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Aadil.
>>>>> On 6/28/2011 7:00 PM, Ajay R Ramjatan wrote:
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>   From what I understand, the defendant was contracted to work on
>>>>>> some
>>>>>> code for Linux Solutions. The defendant decided to publish the code
> without the consent of the employer.
>>>>>> If that's accurate, the defendant was doing a "work for hire" and
was
>>>>>> in the wrong to release the code.
>>>>>> It does not seem to be a case of a customer buying a PABX product
from
>>>>>> Linux Solutions and then changing/redistributing GPL code
>>>>>> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 18:46, 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: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/
>>>>>>>>>>> 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<mailto: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>) 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/
>>>>>>>>>>> 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
>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>> |)|  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/>, LinkedIn
> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/avinashmeetoo>, Twitter
>>>>>>>>>>> <http://twitter.com/AvinashMeetoo>      and Facebook
>>>>>>>>>>> <http://www.facebook.com/avinashmeetoo>
>>>>>>>>>>> Visit Knowledge Seven<http://www.knowledge7.com/>      and our
> other
>>>>>>>>>>> sister
>>>>>>>>>>> websites<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/
>>>>>>>>>>> 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/
>>>>>>>>>> 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/
> 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/
> 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/
> 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/
> 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/
> 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/ 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/
> 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/
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