FSF to Cisco: It's Time to get Sued!
PrintThe Free Software Foundation filed suit in U.S. District Court today, alleging that networking giant Cisco violated FSF copyrights by not giving its users the ability to share and modify the open-source software it uses as the basis for some of its hardware. That's a mouthful, so here's what happened: According FSF, the company found that Cisco was using a GNU-licensed version of Linux to power its firmware. Only, Cisco wasn't giving its customers the full access to the source code that the GNU license specifies as a condition of use!
According to the FSF, the company has been working with Cisco in an attempt to repair these licensing issues since 2003, when the FSF first noticed that Cisco's WRT54G router was running Linux source code, yet offering purchasers no way to access that source code as stipulated in the accompanying GNU license. Cisco allegedly took the ball and ran with it, levying the same treatment for a wide swath of its networking products and accompanying software. That's how things got messy, and why the FSF decided to pursue legal action to protect its copyrights.
"Our licenses are designed to ensure that everyone who uses the software can change it," said Richard Stallman, president and founder of the FSF. "In order to exercise that right, people need the source code, and that's why our licenses require distributors to provide it. We are enforcing our licenses to protect the rights that everyone should have with all software: to use it, share it, and modify it as they see fit."
The complaint, which you can read for yourself, asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to enjoin Cisco from distributing the infringing products. FSF also seeks monetary rewards -- all the profits Cisco has made from said devices. That's an open-source nuke, if we've ever heard one! Cisco has yet to respond to the suit as of this article's writing. But if this case goes in the FSF's favor, the idea is that Cisco would have to release all of the code that it's mixed alongside the GNU-bound Linux code. At least, if Cisco intends to keep using code that falls under a GNU license, that's the way it has to work.
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unixfool
February 27, 2009 at 10:36pm
What you guys are saying about Cisco not being at fault is ridiculous. They BOUGHT Linksys, which means Cisco owns Linksys technology, which means that they inherited the issue...they may not have bought it, but because of the merger, they ARE at fault as a whole. In fact, this wasn't recent. This happened not long before the buyout...and it kept going after the merger. The merger was approximately 5-6 yrs ago!
To the person who thinks Cisco makes most of its money on certs...I don't think so. Have you ever priced a Cisco PIX with maintenance support?? Big bucks. I'm not kidding. And that's not just PIX. There's the ASA solution and the NIDS/HIDS hardware and software. The software license alone is $$$ and you need that to get upgrades. Trust me when I say that they are NOT making most of their money on training and certification.
The whole speel about being an engineer...I'm an engineer for a very large technology company...I've no college degree, but I can probably run circles around most degree holders. You can be an engineer and have the title WITHOUT a degree or a Cisco certification. Certs are junk...anyone who is good at passing tests can get them, just like anyone can get a degree and still be dumb. My 3rd grader spells better than most of my coworkers with degrees. Really.
Laws are laws. You can rarely claim ignorance and not get penalized. Cisco just needs to bend over and take it.
JDorfler
February 12, 2009 at 3:36pm
If I remember correctly, Cisco never really made it's money on hardware or even it's software, but all their money from giving out Cisco Certifications to all the Network "Engineers" out there. (Just so you know, if you want to put "engineer" on your business card or title you must get your Professional Engineers liscense. It's like saying you are a lawyer just b/c you have a law degree but never past your bar. So be very very careful if you do decide to state you are Network "Engineer" instead of Network Technician. If you do have an engineering degree doesn't mean you are an engineer. It just means you have been trained to become an engineer. You still need your PE. Please go to http://www.NSPE.org for further details.)
Sager NP5797 (Clevo)
nVidia GeForce 9800 GTX/Intel QX9300/4GB DDR3 1066
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aarcane
February 01, 2009 at 8:20pm
This is a rather sticky situation in that
- Cisco didn't violate the license, Linksys did prior to being consumed by Cisco
- There is no more Linksys to sue
- "All profits" is an exorbitant amount to ask for, but there's no reasonable way to determine how much is reasonable.
in credit to cisco, they now only market a small number of devices using Linux, namely the L serries (wrt54gL, etc..). The rest of their devices now run the proprietary cisco ios or the vxworks embedded OS. It's a nightmare for home users, but it does get them "off the hook" moving forward. It doesn't excuse what Linksys did however. Who should pay and how much is a decision for a judge (and jury?) to decide.
Cyberdiver
December 12, 2008 at 1:45pm
Has everyone forget that this was originally a linksys product. Cisco bought linksys about around the same time the FSF stared looking into this. Secondly this issue will not bankrupt or put Cisco out of business we are talking about a home use router. I curious to see how it pans out.. I did not knwo that the OS in this router was a linux base.
yr
December 11, 2008 at 7:22pm
Finally someone is stepping up to the plate for open sorce. If RIAA etc can sue for copyright infringement, so can FSF and let the industry know that just because something is 'free for the public' doesn't mean that corporations can cheat the consumers!!!
comptech08
December 11, 2008 at 7:07pm
after being involved with cisco over the past two years i hope that they go out of business becuase of this lawsuit
aarcane
February 01, 2009 at 8:15pm
dude, stallman is a hero and a revolutionary fighting for YOUR rights.
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