Free Software Foundation v. Cisco Systems
Encyclopedia
FSF v. Cisco was a lawsuit initiated by the Free Software Foundation
against Cisco Systems
on December 11, 2008 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
.
The FSF claimed that various products sold under the Linksys
brand by Cisco have violated the licensing
terms of many programs on which FSF holds copyright
, including GCC
, binutils, and the GNU C Library
. Most of these programs are licensed under the GNU General Public License
, and a few are under the GNU Lesser General Public License
.
The Software Freedom Law Center
acted as the FSF's law firm in the case.
The foundation asked the court to enjoin Cisco from further distributing Linksys firmware
that contains FSF copyrighted code, and also asked for all profits that Cisco received "from its unlawful acts."
Cisco stated that they are reviewing the issues in the suit, but they believe to be "substantially in compliance".
The FSF contended that code it held the copyright to was found in the Linksys models EFG120, EFG250, NAS200
, SPA400, WAG300N
, WAP4400N, WIP300, WMA11B, WRT54GL, WRV200, WRV54G
, and WVC54GC, and in the program QuickVPN,
which is used to connect VPN clients via the RV and WRV series Linksys routers.
On May 20, 2009 the parties announced a settlement which includes Cisco appointing a director to ensure Linksys products comply with free software licenses, and Cisco making an undisclosed financial contribution to the FSF.
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
against Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
on December 11, 2008 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...
.
The FSF claimed that various products sold under the Linksys
Linksys
Linksys by Cisco, commonly known as Linksys, is a brand of home and small office networking products now produced by Cisco Systems, though once a separate company founded in 1995 before being acquired by Cisco in 2003...
brand by Cisco have violated the licensing
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
terms of many programs on which FSF holds copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
, including GCC
GNU Compiler Collection
The GNU Compiler Collection is a compiler system produced by the GNU Project supporting various programming languages. GCC is a key component of the GNU toolchain...
, binutils, and the GNU C Library
GNU C Library
The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the C standard library released by the GNU Project. Originally written by the Free Software Foundation for the GNU operating system, the library's development has been overseen by a committee since 2001, with Ulrich Drepper from Red Hat as the lead...
. Most of these programs are licensed under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
, and a few are under the GNU Lesser General Public License
GNU Lesser General Public License
The GNU Lesser General Public License or LGPL is a free software license published by the Free Software Foundation . It was designed as a compromise between the strong-copyleft GNU General Public License or GPL and permissive licenses such as the BSD licenses and the MIT License...
.
The Software Freedom Law Center
Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center is an organization that provides pro bono legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen as Chairman. Initial funding of US$4 million was pledged by...
acted as the FSF's law firm in the case.
The foundation asked the court to enjoin Cisco from further distributing Linksys firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
that contains FSF copyrighted code, and also asked for all profits that Cisco received "from its unlawful acts."
Cisco stated that they are reviewing the issues in the suit, but they believe to be "substantially in compliance".
The FSF contended that code it held the copyright to was found in the Linksys models EFG120, EFG250, NAS200
NAS200
The NAS200 is a network-attached storage appliance intended for the consumer market. It was originally marketed by the Linksys division of Cisco Systems in 2007....
, SPA400, WAG300N
WAG300N
Linksys WAG300N is a Draft-N wireless gateway with two large captive antennae and 4 Ethernet ports. It was the smallest such device tested by MacUser, but the web interface was deemed "infuriating" and transfer rates to a MacBook "untenably slow". WAG300N is based on a Broadcom BCM63xx SoC, and...
, WAP4400N, WIP300, WMA11B, WRT54GL, WRV200, WRV54G
WRV54G
Linksys WRV54G is a Linux-based router that supports 50 VPN tunnels and 5 simultaneous clients. It supports Wireless-G connectivity and 4-port 10/100 Ethernet hub. Unlike the WRT54G series, the WRV54 uses an Intel IXP425 processor, which supports hardware-based encryption, but is costlier...
, and WVC54GC, and in the program QuickVPN,
which is used to connect VPN clients via the RV and WRV series Linksys routers.
On May 20, 2009 the parties announced a settlement which includes Cisco appointing a director to ensure Linksys products comply with free software licenses, and Cisco making an undisclosed financial contribution to the FSF.