The human rights organization Freedom Conservancy Software (SFC) has filed a lawsuit against the company Vice, Together with non-compliance with GPL requirements to distribute firmware to the SmartCast platform based on smart TVs.
The procedures are noteworthy because this is the first lawsuit in history, filed not on behalf of the participant of the development that owns the property rights of the code, but by the consumer, to whom the source code of the components distributed under the GPL license was not provided.
To preserve the freedom of the software, using the code under copyleft licenses in its products, the manufacturer is obliged to provide the source code, including derivative works code and installation instructions. Without such actions, the user loses control over the software, cannot independently fix bugs, add new features, and remove unnecessary features.
Changes may be required to protect your privacy, fix internal issues that the manufacturer refuses to fix, and extend the life of a device after its official support ends or artificial obsolescence to spur the purchase of a new model.
The Freedom Conservancy software announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against Vizio Inc. for what it calls repeated failures to comply with even the basic requirements of the General Public License (GPL).
The lawsuit alleges that Vizio's TV products, based on its SmartCast system, contain software that Vizio misappropriated from a community of developers who intended consumers to have very specific rights to modify, improve, share, and reinstall modified versions. of the software.
The GPL is a copyleft license that guarantees end users the freedom to run, study, share, and modify software. Copyleft is a type of software license that takes advantage of copyright restrictions, but with the intention of promoting sharing (using copyright licenses to freely use and repair software).
Initially, the SFC tried to peacefully negotiate, but the actions through persuasion and information were not justified and a situation arose in the Internet device industry with a general disregard for the requirements of the GPL. To get out of this situation and set a precedent, it was decided to use stricter legal measures to bring offenders to justice and organize a mock trial on one of the worst offenders.
The lawsuit does not provide for the payment of monetary compensation, the SFC only asks the court to force the company to comply with the terms of the GPL on its products and inform consumers about the rights granted by the copyleft license. In the event that the violations are corrected, all requirements are met, and a future obligation to comply with the GPL is provided, SFC is ready to close the litigation immediately.
Vizio was originally notified of a GPL violation in August 2018. For about a year, attempts were made to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means, but in January 2020, the company completely withdrew from the negotiations and stopped responding to letters from SFC representatives. In July 2021, the support cycle of the TV model was completed, the firmware of which was found to be defective, but the SFC representatives discovered that the SFC recommendations were not taken into account and the terms of the GPL were also violated in the models of newer devices.
In particular, Vizio products do not offer the ability for a user to request the source code of the GPL components of Linux kernel-based firmware and a typical system environment where GPL packages such as U-Boot, Bash, gawk, GNU are detected tar, glibc, FFmpeg, Bluez, BusyBox, Coreutils, glib, dnsmasq , DirectFB, libgcrypt, and systemd. Furthermore, the information materials do not mention the use of software under copyleft licenses and the rights provided by these licenses.
In the case of Vizio, GPL compliance is especially important given past litigation in which the company has been accused of violating privacy and sending personal information about users from the devices, including information about the movies and TV shows they watch.
Source: https://sfconservancy.org
In short, it is best to avoid buying Vizio brand equipment.