Cisco and Free Software Foundation Settle License Dispute
by Kristin Shoemaker - May. 21, 2009Comments (0)- Related Blog Posts
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In December, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) filed suit against Cisco, after several years of urging the company to comply with the licensing terms used on its Linksys routers. Several Linksys routers used firmware licensed under the GPL/LGPL, but Cisco failed to make the source code available per the terms of the licenses.
It's not terribly easy to make the FSF resort to legal action, but after five years of relative unresponsiveness, FSF licensing compliance engineer Brett Smith said the organization had to take stronger measures to get the problem resolved.
The case against Cisco has been settled, with Cisco agreeing to appoint a Free Software Director who will ensure Linksys complies with the terms of the free licenses it uses, and report back to the FSF on its progress.
Cisco says it will soon be informing Linksys owners of their rights under the GPL, updated and complete versions of its products source code will be available on the Linksys site (as part of the previous complaint claimed that the source code that was available was either incomplete or out of date), and it will be giving a donation to the FSF.
The FSF states that settling under these terms was the quickest, best course of action to bring Linksys customers the promised source code. In addition to the watchful eye of Cisco's appointed Free Software Director, the FSF says it will independently review licensing compliance at Linksys, and work with the company to avoid and resolve any issues should they arise.
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