Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2008/07/22/welte-award.html

About two hours ago, Harald Welte received the 2008 Open Source Award
entitled the Defender of Rights. (Open Source awards are
renamed for each individual who receives them.) This award comes on the
heels of
the FSF Award
for the Advancement of Free Software in March. I am glad that GPL
enforcement work is now receiving the recognition it deserves.

When I started doing GPL enforcement work in 1999, and even when, two
years later, it became a major center of my work (as it remains
today), the violations space was a very lonely place to work. During
that early period, I and my team at FSF were the only
people actively enforcing the GPL on behalf of the Software
Freedom Movement. When Harald
started gpl-violations.org in
2004, it was a relief to finally see someone else taking GPL violations
as seriously as I and my colleagues at the FSF had been for so many
years.

Of course, it was no surprise when Harald received the FSF award
earlier this year. This Open Source Award now shows a broader
recognition. In fact, I hope that this award is a
harbinger to indicate that the larger FLOSS world has realized the
tremendous value in consistent and serious GPL enforcement that some of
us have done for so long. The copyleft is meaningless if it is not
defended against those who ignore it, and I am glad that more of the
FLOSS world has begun to see that.