Software Patents

New York, NY: (Mar-17-08) Two software developers Erick Andersen and Rob Landley, brought a lawsuit against Verizon Communications, alleging that the telecom giant's broadband service violated the terms of the widely used open source agreement under which their product was licensed. The suit also named Verizon subcontractor Actiontec Electronics, who supplied Verizon with wireless routers for its FiOS broadband service that uses an open source program called BusyBox.

Sources stated that Erick Andersen and Rob Landley were developers of BusyBox, a set of open source software tools that enhances programs to run on devices with limited resources. Andersen and Landley accused Verizon of not making the source code in the routers' software available to end users, as mandated under the GNU General Public License.

The suit, filed in December 2007, reached settlement, in which Actiontec Electronics must pay an undisclosed sum to developers Erick Andersen and Rob Landley. Additionally, Actiontec also agreed to appoint an internal officer to ensure that it is in compliance with licenses governing the open source software it uses. The deal also required Actiontec to post the source code on its web site. [INFORMATION WEEK: VERIZON SETTLES OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE LAWSUIT]

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Published on Mar-18-08