The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) triumphantly announced today that it has just filed what is apparently the first U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of GPL V2. The perpetrator, Monsoon. The plantiff, BusyBox. Apparently Monsoon forgot to re-distributors the BusyBox code to make sure each downstream user had access to the BusyBox source. As is increasingly the way in the good old USA, The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) triumphantly announced today that it has just filed what is apparently the first U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on a violation of GPL V2. The perpetrator, Monsoon. The plantiff, BusyBox. Apparently Monsoon forgot to re-distributors the BusyBox code to make sure each downstream user had access to the BusyBox source. As is increasingly the way in the good old USA, the plaintiffs, after failing to hear back from Monsoon’s forum autobot — yes, they apparently made their initial concerns known to an artificial life form on September 5th — immediately set the wheels of litigation in motion. Now, don’t get me wrong. The GPL is a binding contact, utilizing very clearly defined and understood rules of copyright and derivation. Monsoon was wrong. And BusyBox was right to sue. But honestly, didn’t we learn anything at all from the SCO debacle? Litigation should be a last course of action, not a frenzied first option. You don’t want to scream bingo unless you’re sure you’ve got all of your boxes checked. Open Source