[License-discuss] Consumer protection, defective product

[Roland Turner]

On 3/11/21 02:12, Dirk RIEHLE wrote:

> https://www.natlawreview.com/article/gpl-open-source-litigation-could-open-door-to-other-suits
>
> or similar in which the SFC sues Vizio over GPLv2 violation from the position
> of consumer protection, not from the position of an original rights holder.
> According to the article, this is a novel approach, and if it works out, would
> (indeed) greatly increase who has standing to sue.

This is spectacular. In >2 decades of open source advocacy, it never, 
ever occurred to me to treat the harm done to the recipients of modified 
copyleft software without access to the modifications as standing. There 
seems no impediment in principle; whether it will stand up in a 
particular jurisdiction is an open question; this case may provide an 
answer.

The point that software freedom for the user of the device, control of 
personal data collected/processed by the device, and right to repair are 
all important values for the owner/user of the device is so obvious that 
I've even spoken on the first two 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNRN70XrLhs> but the idea that 
violating these values might both give rise standing by the same party 
just hadn't occurred to me.


- Roland

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