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Deutsch: Pariser Berufungsgerichtshof mit einem GPL-Fall

The Paris Court of Appeals published in September 2009 its decision on a case that involved the distribution of the VNC Software, remote desktop access software available under GPL GNU licence.

The case was brought forward by AFPA (Association for professional education of adults) against Edu4, a commercial company. Edu4 won a contract in 2000 that foreseen the delivery of a software solution to AFPA. The Association discovered that VNC was distributed with this equipment without providing the source code or keeping the licence notices.

Free Software Foundation France presented the case like a landmark ruling and stated: "Companies distributing the software have been given a strong reminder that the license's terms are enforceable under French law. And users in France can rest assured that, if need be, they can avail themselves of the legal system to see violations addressed and their rights respected."

Unfortunately, the case is merely a contractual dispute between the two parties that did not involve the GPL licence as such. Also, the court did not specifically address the enforceability of the GPL Licence.

As the lawyer Martin von Willebrand explains on his blog "Not a single claim (by either party), as cited in the court's decision, is based on GPL license, any interpretation of GPL as a contract or any copyright. The decision cites GPL license a number of times, mostly to describe VNC-software and also partly related to the discussion whether it was allowed or not to include free software into the outcome of the project."

The court decision considered that " Edu4 has failed to fullfil its contractual obligations delivering in December 2001 (...) a product which, on the one hand, created privacy risks for EOF users and, on the other hand, did not satisfy the terms of the GNU GPL licence, as Edu4 had replaced by its own copyright the original VNC's copyright notices regarding the ownership of the two files and the text of the licence."

Thus, this case can't be considered a landmark ruling, with the GPL licence playing a side role in the context of the entire case. However, it is worth underlining that "the court habitually considers the software licensed under the terms of GNU GPL and attaches legal significance to the terms" as von Willebrand concludes.

Paris Court of Appeals condemns Edu4 for violating the GNU General Public License (22.09.2009)
http://fsffrance.org/news/article2009-09-22.en.html

Recent Court Decision in Paris (referred as Paris GPL case) (1.10.2009)
http://martinvonwillebrand.net/2009/10/01/recent-court-decision-in-par...

Court decision - Cour d'Appel de Paris, Pôle 5, Chambre 10, no: 294, (only in French, 16.09.2009)
http://fsffrance.org/news/arret-ca-paris-16.09.2009.pdf