Post Syndicated from original https://lwn.net/Articles/873336/rss

Software Freedom Conservancy announced
it has filed a lawsuit against California TV manufacturer Vizio
Inc. for GPL violations.

The lawsuit alleges that Vizio’s TV products, built on its SmartCast
system, contain software that Vizio unfairly appropriated from a community
of developers who intended consumers to have very specific rights to
modify, improve, share, and reinstall modified versions of the software.

[…] Software Freedom Conservancy, a nonprofit organization focused on
ethical technology, is filing the lawsuit as the purchaser of a product
which has copylefted code. This approach makes it the first legal case that
focuses on the rights of individual consumers as third-party beneficiaries
of the GPL.