Frankfurt District Court adjudges distributor for GPL-violation
In a judgment of September 6, 2006, the Frankfurt District Court (Landgericht Frankfurt) has ordered the German subsidiary of a Taiwanese hardware and network manufacturer to disclosure and reimbursement of costs because of a GPL-violation. The programmer Mr Harald Welte, who runs the project gpl-violations.org aiming to achieve a comprehensive compliance with the license conditions of the GPL, had taken legal action. After the first decision on the validity of the GNU GPL by the Munich District Court (Landgericht München I) in a 2004 preliminary injunction proceeding, now for the first time a decision in a main action proceeding is on hand. Meanwhile, the judgment has become final. The Frankfurt District Court has particularly commented on anti-trust law issues and in this regard made clear that, irrespective of the legitimacy of the GPL under anti-trust law, a use of the software without complying with the license conditions of the GPL is by no means permitted.