Re: Copyright Misuse Doctrine in Apple v. Psystar

[Hyman Rosen]

amicus_curious wrote:
> No.  the link from Verizon.com has that directory name which resolves to 
> download.Verizon.net which is a URL owned by Verizon.  Have you been 
> paying attention?

Just because the file is served by the Verizon webserver does not mean
that it is stored there. You cannot know what a webserver is doing from
the outside because a webserver is a general purpose program that may be
set up to respond in arbitrary ways depending on the rqeuest.

The question then is whether that "actiontec gateway" URL, when activated
by a user seeking a copy of the firmware, leads to an action that would be
forbidden to Verizon under normal copyright, thus requiring that Verizon
have the GPL's permission to carry out legally. The answer to that question
can only come by finding out from Verizon what they are doing. The people
in the best position to find that out were the SFLC, because of the legal
action they initiated. They appear to have decided that Verizon's actions
did not require permission from the GPL, and they therefore dismissed their
case against Verizon, being satisfied instead that the company which makes
Verizon's routers is now properly making the GPLed sources available.