First U.S. GPL lawsuit to settle out of court

The first U.S. GPL-related lawsuit appears to be headed for a quick out-of-court settlement. Device-maker Monsoon Multimedia admitted today that it has violated the GPLv2 (GNU General Public License version 2), and said it will release its modified BusyBox code in full compliance with the license.

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Apple says iPhone unlocking may leave handsets “permanently inoperable”

Apple said Monday that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed.

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EU thinktank advocates “unbundling” Microsoft Windows

Computers sold in the European Union would come without operating systems under proposals from the influential Globalisation Institute. The think tank, based 30 metres from European Commission, says that Microsoft Windows’ monopoly has damaged consumers and is not in the public interest.

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OS developers file first GPL copyright infringement Case

The Software Freedom Law Center said Thursday that it has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against a consumer electronics company, Monsoon Multimedia, for allegedly violating the license that governs the use of the Linux operating system.

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Microsoft sued over WGA spyware allegations in China

After a global Windows Genuine Advantage failure caused by human error, Microsoft now has to face a privacy suit brought against the company in China over alleged WGA behavior. This joins similar suits in the US that have described WGA as “spyware.”

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