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<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 10:46 AM, Aadil Noorkhan <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aadil@lavabit.com">aadil@lavabit.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
Hello,<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br><font color="#888888">
Aadil.</font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On 6/28/2011 6:40 PM, Ronny R. wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
we can also make the applicant aware that we are keen to help the defendant<br>
<br>
On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 6:39 PM, Ronny R.<<a href="mailto:redoverlord@gmail.com" target="_blank">redoverlord@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
hello<br>
<br>
my opinion is that<br>
1. we are not lawyers<br>
2. sending a letter to the court is of no use as we dont have any locus standi<br>
3. we better advise defendant to counter affidavit the one of the<br>
applicant and then we can be of some help<br>
but please note that in no case can we act as expert og the GPL laws,<br>
we can provide the text and let the lawyers of the defendant analyse<br>
and show to the court.<br>
<br>
Cheers<br>
<br>
Ronny<br>
<br>
On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 6:26 PM, Aadil Noorkhan<<a href="mailto:aadil@lavabit.com" target="_blank">aadil@lavabit.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hello,<br>
<br>
The fraudulent statements in the affidavit are disturbing indeed.<br>
<br>
We should inform the Supreme Court and both parties of the misleading<br>
statements via email and a letter, backed by solid evidence and signed by<br>
the LUGM managing committee, or simply the president.<br>
<br>
If no response is received then we sent the letter to the press.<br>
<br>
Cheers,<br>
Aadil.<br>
<br>
On 6/28/2011 5:24 PM, Avinash Meetoo wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
Dear all,<br>
<br>
I have just received this email from Philip Hands in the UK referring to<br>
a case currently in the Supreme Court of Mauritius. It would seem that<br>
the two parties involved have different opinions on what an open source<br>
license really is, more specifically the GPL. Someone called Harald<br>
Welte has written a post on his blog on this matter.<br>
<br>
A few months ago, someone called me at work asking me about what the GPL<br>
really means but I am not sure whether he is one of the parties concerned.<br>
<br>
What do you think?<br>
<br>
Avinash<br>
<br>
---<br>
From: *Philip Hands*<<a href="mailto:phil@hands.com" target="_blank">phil@hands.com</a><mailto:<a href="mailto:phil@hands.com" target="_blank">p<u></u>hil@hands.com</a>>><br>
Date: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 4:01 PM<br>
Subject: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme Court of Mauritius<br>
<br>
<br>
Hi Avinash,<br>
<br>
I'm forwarding this to your mailing list in the hope that someone on<br>
the list knows how to inform your Supreme Court properly. It wasn't<br>
clear to me if that was a subscriber-only list though, so I'm also<br>
sending it to you direct, as you appear to to be the founder of the<br>
LUG. I hope that's OK.<br>
<br>
Here is the main point from the attached mail:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/27/" target="_blank">http://laforge.gnumonks.org/<u></u>weblog/2011/06/27/</a><br>
<br>
in which you can see that someone from <a href="http://www.linuxsolutions.mu/" target="_blank">http://www.linuxsolutions.mu/</a><br>
seem to be claiming (under oath) that there is no difference between GPL<br>
licensed software, and Public Domain.<br>
<br>
I'm sure that any feedback that you have would be welcome, either on the<br>
<a href="mailto:ftf-legal-bounces@fsfeurope.org" target="_blank">ftf-legal-bounces@fsfeurope.<u></u>org</a><mailto:<a href="mailto:ftf-legal-bounces@fsfeurope.org" target="_blank">ftf-legal-bounces@<u></u>fsfeurope.org</a>><br>
mailing list, or perhaps if you get in<br>
touch with Harald Welte<<a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org" target="_blank">laforge@gnumonks.org</a><br>
<mailto:<a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org" target="_blank">laforge@gnumonks.org</a>>><u></u>, and he can then update<br>
his blog (of course, you're welcome to reply to me as well).<br>
<br>
Cheers, Phil.<br>
<br>
P.S. FYI I'm a long-time Debian Developer, and have hosted the Debian UK<br>
mirror (<a href="http://ftp.uk.debian.org" target="_blank">ftp.uk.debian.org</a><<a href="http://ftp.uk.debian.org" target="_blank">http://ftp.<u></u>uk.debian.org</a>>) since the mid 90's<br>
-- and I make occasional<br>
contributions to the Free Software Foundation Europe mailing list where<br>
this issue came up.<br>
<br>
<br>
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: Harald Welte<<a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org" target="_blank">laforge@gnumonks.org</a><<u></u>mailto:<a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org" target="_blank">laforge@gnumonks.org</a>>><br>
To: <a href="mailto:ftf-legal@fsfeurope.org" target="_blank">ftf-legal@fsfeurope.org</a><<u></u>mailto:<a href="mailto:ftf-legal@fsfeurope.org" target="_blank">ftf-legal@fsfeurope.org</a><u></u>><br>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:58:53 +0200<br>
Subject: [FTF-Legal] Mildly GPL related case in Supreme Court of Mauritius<br>
Hi,<br>
<br>
since I don't expect everyone here is following my blog, I would like to<br>
post a small notice here: <a href="http://laforge.gnumonks.org/weblog/2011/06/27/" target="_blank">http://laforge.gnumonks.org/<u></u>weblog/2011/06/27/</a><br>
<br>
The case is mostly about whether or not a freelancing contractor<br>
(defendant) has broken and NDA and anti-competition clauses he signed<br>
with the plaintiff.<br>
<br>
I don't understand all the details as I have only some of the<br>
documents, but for whatever reasons a "duly authorized marketing and<br>
sales executive" of the company ceritifed under oath that "open-source<br>
software like "Linux" have no copyright restrictions, which in effect<br>
puts no restrictions on their user or distribution". And furthermore,<br>
"any work derived from the open source software [...] becomes the<br>
ownership of the applicant"<br>
<br>
I don't really see how this is cloesly related to the heart of the case,<br>
but I still think it's devastating to see such an argument be made in<br>
front of the highest court of any (albeit small) country.<br>
<br>
I'm not sure what can be done by the outside world (e.g. us) to help the<br>
court understand that Linux as well as Asterisk are very well<br>
copyrighted works, and that at least Linux is only available under<br>
GPLv2, which has a number of conditions on its distribution.<br>
<br>
If anyone is interested in this, I have some more documetns that the<br>
defendant has permitted me to share (not sure if he has authority to<br>
permit that, but well...).<br>
<br>
(and in case you wonder, Mauritius has signed the Berne convention in<br>
1989).<br>
<br>
Specifically if anyone has an interest to send some kind of<br>
letter/amicus curiae to the court clarifying the issue, it would be<br>
great. Apparently there are arguments on the lines of "you cannot just<br>
download the GPL text from the internet and claim it is valid" etc.<br>
The Judge seemed to describe himself as 'computer illiterate'.<br>
<br>
Maybe there are also some existing English legal publications that one<br>
could DHL/FedEx/UPS to the court ;)<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Harald<br>
--<br>
- Harald Welte<<a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org" target="_blank">laforge@gnumonks.org</a><<u></u>mailto:<a href="mailto:laforge@gnumonks.org" target="_blank">laforge@gnumonks.org</a>>><br>
<a href="http://laforge.gnumonks.org/" target="_blank">http://laforge.gnumonks.org/</a><br>
<br>
==============================<u></u>==============================<u></u>================<br>
"Privacy in residential applications is a desirable marketing option."<br>
(ETSI EN 300 175-7 Ch.<br>
A6)<br>
______________________________<u></u>_________________<br>
FTF-Legal mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:FTF-Legal@fsfeurope.org" target="_blank">FTF-Legal@fsfeurope.org</a><<u></u>mailto:<a href="mailto:FTF-Legal@fsfeurope.org" target="_blank">FTF-Legal@fsfeurope.org</a><u></u>><br>
<a href="https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/ftf-legal" target="_blank">https://mail.fsfeurope.org/<u></u>mailman/listinfo/ftf-legal</a><br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
|)| Philip Hands <a href="tel:%5B%2B44%20%280%2920%208530%209560" value="+442085309560" target="_blank">[+44 (0)20 8530 9560</a><br>
<tel:%5B%2B44%20%280%2920%<u></u>208530%209560>] <a href="http://www.hands.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hands.com/</a><br>
|-| <a href="http://HANDS.COM" target="_blank">HANDS.COM</a><<a href="http://HANDS.COM" target="_blank">http://HANDS.COM</a>> Ltd. <a href="http://www.uk.debian.org/" target="_blank">http://www.uk.debian.org/</a><br>
|(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND<br>
<br>
---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
*Avinash Meetoo**<br>
**Managing-Director of Knowledge Seven*<br>
<br>
Call me on 493-9394 (Mobile) or 464-7446 (Office)<br>
I am on my portal<<a href="http://www.avinashmeetoo.com/" target="_blank">http://www.<u></u>avinashmeetoo.com/</a>>, LinkedIn<br>
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<<a href="http://www.facebook.com/avinashmeetoo" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/<u></u>avinashmeetoo</a>><br>
Visit Knowledge Seven<<a href="http://www.knowledge7.com/" target="_blank">http://www.knowledge7.<u></u>com/</a>> and our other sister<br>
websites<<a href="http://www.knowledge7.com/page/internet-services" target="_blank">http://www.<u></u>knowledge7.com/page/internet-<u></u>services</a>><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
______________________________<u></u>____________________________<br>
Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list<br>
Website: <a href="http://lugm.org" target="_blank">http://lugm.org</a><br>
Mailing list archive: <a href="http://lugm.org/pipermail/discuss_lugm.org/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/pipermail/<u></u>discuss_lugm.org/</a><br>
Forum: <a href="http://lugm.org/forum/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/forum/</a><br>
IRC: #<a href="http://linux.mu" target="_blank">linux.mu</a> on Freenode<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
______________________________<u></u>____________________________<br>
Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list<br>
Website: <a href="http://lugm.org" target="_blank">http://lugm.org</a><br>
Mailing list archive: <a href="http://lugm.org/pipermail/discuss_lugm.org/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/pipermail/<u></u>discuss_lugm.org/</a><br>
Forum: <a href="http://lugm.org/forum/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/forum/</a><br>
IRC: #<a href="http://linux.mu" target="_blank">linux.mu</a> on Freenode<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
______________________________<u></u>____________________________<br>
Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list<br>
Website: <a href="http://lugm.org" target="_blank">http://lugm.org</a><br>
Mailing list archive: <a href="http://lugm.org/pipermail/discuss_lugm.org/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/pipermail/<u></u>discuss_lugm.org/</a><br>
Forum: <a href="http://lugm.org/forum/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/forum/</a><br>
IRC: #<a href="http://linux.mu" target="_blank">linux.mu</a> on Freenode<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
<br>
______________________________<u></u>____________________________<br>
Linux User Group of Mauritius (LUGM) Discuss mailing list<br>
Website: <a href="http://lugm.org" target="_blank">http://lugm.org</a><br>
Mailing list archive: <a href="http://lugm.org/pipermail/discuss_lugm.org/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/pipermail/<u></u>discuss_lugm.org/</a><br>
Forum: <a href="http://lugm.org/forum/" target="_blank">http://lugm.org/forum/</a><br>
IRC: #<a href="http://linux.mu" target="_blank">linux.mu</a> on Freenode<br>
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