Press Release - Initial Announcement

From Mwiki

[edit] Free Software Writers Want Iliad to Respect their Licence

Wednesday November 14 2007 - PARIS - Several free software writers have called Iliad, one of the main telecom companies in France, to respect their work, and a judicial proceeding has begun to demand the respect of their licence. This action follows repeated refusals of Iliad to publish the source code of the Free Software included in their Freebox. Although the writers appreciate “the innovative contributions that Iliad has made in the telecommunication industry, along its historical inclination toward Free Software”, they are concerned about the reasons that may have led Iliad to this philosophical swing.

Free software writers, often voluntarily, make their work available to all. Using the GPL licence, they enable everyone to use, copy, edit, and redistribute their free software, provided the authorship is attributed to them and that source code and modifications, in turn, are made available to all. Among the writers admonishing Iliad are Harald Welte, author of iptables (an important element of Linux’s core) as well as Rob Landley and Erik Andersen, authors of BusyBox (utilities suite for embedded hardware). The judicial proceeding only involves the work of Harald Welte, who will thus be the only one in court, but these two pieces of software are delivered with the Freebox and used to make it work.

In an open letter, the writers state that: “…with its increasing success and recently appointed management, Iliad is forgetting its initial foundation and namesake.”They fear the refusal is brought about by the wish to take over an increasing part of home computing through their box, already enhanced through a multimedia box in its latest version. This refusal actually differentiates Iliad from its main competition, as Neuf Cegetel has recently published the entire source code of their box.

At the same time, a donation campaign has been launched to try and cover the procedural expenses and lawyers’ fees. For the writers, this is a "real challenge", the necessary sum already amounting to 25.000€, and subject to increase should Iliad not withdraw.

[edit] Contact

Xavier Antoviaque
Campaign's Official Spokesman
+33.6.64.44.65.05
xavier@antoviaque.org

[edit] URLs

• Open letter and campaign website: http://freebox.flouzo.net/
• Questions-Answers : http://freebox.flouzo.net/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions
• Appeal for contributions : http://freebox.flouzo.net/wiki/Contribute