FSF and the GPL prevail in court
The code long ago proved its technical endurance and in recent years has made headlines with investors but until this past week has been largely untested in the courts. But this spring advocates of open source intellectual property already have two cases to celebrate.
First comes news that the Free Software Foundation has been successful in a requested court dismissal of the Wallace complaint. Groklaw provides complete coverage on the case and eloquently observes:
>So, the end result is, the GPL went to court, and the judge not only upheld it, he said this:
[T]he GPL encourages, rather than discourages, free competition and the distribution of computer operating systems, the benefits of which directly pass to consumers. These benefits include lower prices, better access and more innovation.
>I’m sure that was not Mr. Wallace’s intention, to strenghten the GPL. But he did. (GL)