Copyleft Compliance Projects - Software Freedom Conservancy
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I posted about this once before, but…

The long and short is:

  • Vizio put a bunch of GPL’d software on their TVs in compiled/binary form only in violation of the terms of the GPL.
  • the Software Freedom Conservancy is suing Vizio to force them to follow the terms of the GPL and release the source code of said GPL’d software.
  • The courts seem quite sympathetic to the SFC’s arguments.
  • And if the SFC wins, we can expect 1) a FOSS Linux distribution for smart TV’s (think OpenWRT but for smart TVs) and 2) moving forward, demands for GPL compliance to consumer electronics manufacturers from regular folks like you and me will have more “teeth” than they did previously, potentially resulting in a proliferation of new FOSS distributions for various consumer electronic devices.

I really think this is something to get excited about, and I can’t wait to follow along as more news comes out about the proceedings.

Full disclosure, the trial has been delayed at the last minute more than once already, so I suppose there’s a possibility it won’t start tomorrow, but I think this is more “last minute” than any of the last delays have been. So I’m crossing my fingers extra hard.

Edit: Damn! Looks like it got delayed again. Now the trial date is listed as “late 2026”. :(

    • TootSweet@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      14 天前

      I’m not sure there’s any official word yet on what caused this delay. (That said, there might have been an announcement at FOSSY, a FOSS convention coordinated by the SFC. I hadn’t noticed it had started until just now. If I run across an official reason, I’ll update this comment and maybe the OP here.) But one of the recent times it got delayed was the court’s fault. (The previous trial on the docket ended up running longer than expected. “Into overtime” if you will.)

      That said, I think Vizio’s motion to remove the case to federal court was probably somewhere between a hail mary and a delay tactic. (The chances that the courts would agree with them were pretty slim. Here’s one of the lawyers on the case on the SFC side saying that the motion to remove based on the preemption theory was a long shot. That whole video is a panel at a convention that served as a Q&A regarding the SFC v. Vizio suit.)

      In general, the court system moves a the speed of glue and Vizio’s got no reason to hurry because they have a lot more money to burn than the SFC does and because the longer it takes to get a ruling, the longer Vizio can keep selling its TVs and ignoring the requirements of the GPL.