Nov 4, 2009
Are open source licenses enforceable? What will happen if I violate the GPL or another license?
There have been very few court cases interpreting or enforcing the GPL or any other open source licenses. A German court has enforced the GPL, but no U.S. court has ruled on the matter. The Free Software Foundation has enforced the GPL several times, but only in private actions that have not resulted in reported court cases. Questions abound about whether the GPL is a license or a contract, whether its provisions are enforceable and what the consequence of violating its terms would be. For some companies and investors, the uncertainty over these questions is sufficient reason to stay away form open source code.
Often, the copyright owner simply wants to require that the terms of the open course license be complied with and source code be made available, or if the copyright owner operates under a dual licensing model, it may want the violator to purchase a fee-bearing license. However, violation of an open source license could constitute copyright infringement, for which the remedies include injunctions, payment of the copyright owner's actual damages, or, if the copyright owner has registered the copyright, statutory damages, which range from $750 to $30,000 per infringement, and more if the infringement is intentional.
