Verizon Sued for Alleged GPL Violation
December 10, 2007
Verizon, the second-largest US phone carrier, was last week sued by the Software Freedom Law Center for alleged violation of the open-source GNU General Public License.
The suit, filed on behalf of open-source software developer BusyBox, claims that Verizon’s Actiontec MI424WR wireless routers infringe on BusyBox’s copyrights.
The Actiontec router, which is targeted at Verizon’s FiOS customers, allegedly includes code owned by BusyBox. Under the GPL terms, Verizon is required to distribute source code with the router, which it currently does not, according to the lawsuit.
The Software Freedom Law Center is seeking an injunction as well as unspecified damages from Verizon.