| Follow @copiesofcopies
Brooklyn, NY
Aaron Williamson is an attorney at Tor Ekeland, P.C., where he counsels software companies, startups, and other technology-focused clients on business transactions, intellectual property issues, regulatory compliance, and related matters. Previously, he worked as in-house counsel at IEEE and as a staff attorney at the Software Freedom Law Center, where he advised community free and open source software projects.
Authored Comments
Yes, if Versata's customers violated the conditions of the GPL, then their licenses would terminate, including any patent license. Their argument is that they could not have possibly violated the license, because all they did was run the program, something which is not subject to any of the license conditions according to Section 0.
I agree that GPLv2's lack of an explicit license should not turn Linux into a landmine. What I am saying in this post is that, if XimpleWare's claim succeeds, it will open Linux users up to similar claims. While most Linux contributors are unlikely to file patent claims against compliant users, various circumstances -- including the acquisition of a contributing company by another company less friendly to free software -- could increase that likelihood over time.