Get the latest update on our Vizio court case
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●Our Work
Copyleft Compliance
We defend and uphold the rights of software users and consumers under copyleft licenses.
Impact Litigation
We defend the legal rights of software users. Learn the details, status, and stakes of our court cases.
Give Up GitHub
We urge FOSS Developers to Give Up GitHub! Learn why.
Outreachy
We offer internships for anyone who faces underrepresentation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the tech industry.
FOSSY
Our annual community-oriented conference focused on the creation and impact of free and open source software.
●Tools
Member Projects
We provide non-profit infrastructure and services to our members creating Free/Libre and Open Source Software.
Use The Source
Our tool for evaluating the source code candidates companies must provide for GPLed software.
OpenWrt One
We designed and built the first ever wireless Internet router designed with software freedom and right to repair in mind.
●Learn
The Corresponding Source
A bi-weekly oggcast about legal, policy, and many other issues in the Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) world.
Glossary of Terms
A list of terms you might be unfamiliar with but occur frequently in our work.
FAQ About the Vizio Lawsuit
Your most frequently asked questions about the Vizio lawsuit, answered in one place.
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Donate
●News
Press Releases
Press
Blog
Vizio Lawsuit in the News
Our Issues in the News
●About
Sponsors
Sustainers
Board of Directors
Staff
Evaluation Committee
Outside Counsel, et alia
Transparency
Contact
●Our Work
Copyleft Compliance
We defend and uphold the rights of software users and consumers under copyleft licenses.
Impact Litigation
We defend the legal rights of software users. Learn the details, status, and stakes of our court cases.
Give Up GitHub
We urge FOSS Developers to Give Up GitHub! Learn why.
Outreachy
We offer internships for anyone who faces underrepresentation, systemic bias, or discrimination in the tech industry.
FOSSY
Our annual community-oriented conference focused on the creation and impact of free and open source software.
●Tools
Member Projects
We provide non-profit infrastructure and services to our members creating Free/Libre and Open Source Software.
Use The Source
Our tool for evaluating the source code candidates companies must provide for GPLed software.
OpenWrt One
We designed and built the first ever wireless Internet router designed with software freedom and right to repair in mind.
●Learn
The Corresponding Source
A bi-weekly oggcast about legal, policy, and many other issues in the Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS) world.
Glossary of Terms
A list of terms you might be unfamiliar with but occur frequently in our work.
FAQ About the Vizio Lawsuit
Your most frequently asked questions about the Vizio lawsuit, answered in one place.
●Donate
Thanks to so many donors, we met our largest match donation ever of $211,939.
Two generous anonymous donors have provided another $40,012ofadditional matching funds.
Give now to help us reach this stretch goal!
For only 4 more days, the
next $13,079offinancial support we receive will be matched!
$26,933 matched!
$13,079 to go!
$211,927 fully matched!
Impact Litigation for Copyleft
Pursuant to our Principles of
Community-Oriented GPL enforcement, Software Freedom Conservancy
(SFC) engages in
litigation only as an last resort when other methods to adjudicate users'
rights under copyleft fail. However, when necessary, SFC engages in impact
litigation in lawsuits around the world — both as a Plaintiff
ourselves and by paying the legal fees of other Plaintiffs.
Current Copyleft Litigation
Our current impact litigation against Vizio is ongoing
to establish users' rights under the GPLv2 and LGPLv2.1. Please
do read more about it and donate
to support this work!
Past Copyleft Litigation
These past lawsuits are listed in reverse chronological order.
Sebastian Steck's AVM Lawsuit
This SFC-funded user rights lawsuit was filed by Sebastian Steck in Berlin in 2023 and received a positive final decision from the court in June 2024 with AVM providing "the scripts used to control ... installation of the executable" for the LGPLv2.1 works in the AVM router that Steck purchased. More details are available in our press release and informational page, which provides the source code that was received from AVM allowing users to modify and reinstall copylefted works into the router's flash memory:
●SFC-funded lawsuit gets software repair and reinstall for users of AVM routers
●Court documents and source code of successful SFC-funded lawsuit in Germany against AVM
Christoph Hellwig's VMware Lawsuit
SFC partially funded and assisted in coordination of Christoph
Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in Germany. That case concluded in 2019.
You can view the relevant announcements and analysis that Conservancy has
published about the case below, starting with the announcement regarding
the conclusion of the case:
●VMware Suit Concludes in Germany
●Free as in
Freedom podcast that discusses the conclusion of the
lawsuit
●Announcement of Appeal
●Original Press Release
●Funding our Compliance Work
●
FAQ on VMware Lawsuit
●VMware's &
Christoph's Code Similarity Analysis
Software Freedom Conservancy v. Best Buy, et al
On 14 December 2009, SFC filed a federal copyright
lawsuit against 14 defendants, including Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, and
JVC.
The docket
of that lawsuit is available (on archive.org) and
the original complaint is on
our website.
SFC settled with each defendant at different times, and the
dismissals can be seen in the docket — the last occurring in
September 2012. Generally speaking, and pursuant to
our Principles of
Community-Oriented GPL enforcement, Conservancy never settles a lawsuit
unless we believe that full compliance has been achieved (or will be
achieved imminently) with the terms of all copyleft licenses
on all software included in the devices at issue in any lawsuit
that we've filed.
What We Do
●Copyleft Compliance
●Vizio Lawsuit
●Past Impact Litigation
●Give Up GitHub!
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●Outreachy
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Vizio Lawsuit
●About the Lawsuit
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Resources for Journalists on Vizio
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●Glossary
More About Our Copyleft Advocacy
●How To Help
●Strategic GPL Enforcement Initiative
●Impact Litigation for Copyleft
●Liberate IoT Firmware via GPL Enforcement
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