[getmeinrn]

I was talking with a small startup founder about a project I had licensed under AGPL. He asked, "How do you know if someone uses your project against your licence though?" with a smile. His point wasn't anything new, but I still didn't have a great answer. I just said that it would require the company being honest and purchase a commercial license, and that I have personally worked at companies that evaluate their licenses to make sure they are in compliance.

But his immediate reaction being the thought of abusing the license was irritating. I can't say that I have never thought this way (of using "free" software, licenses be damned) when I was younger & in school. But as the owner of legitimate business, it seems so perverse. It screws small creators and discourages them from sharing their work with everyone.

[pabs3]

GPL violations are constant and everywhere, this definitely isn't new. I've even seen BSD license violations before. My DSL modem/router violates the licenses of micro_httpd (BSD), samba/Linux/busybox (GPL) and probably more. Basically, you have to go out and look for violations and prosecute them. If the Software Freedom Conservancy prevails in their lawsuit against Vizio, then it will make it possible for any recipient of GPLed binaries to sue for GPL compliance. That means that lawsuits for compliance don't need to involve the copyright holder and projects can outsource compliance efforts to the userbase of open source copylefted projects. That doesn't necessarily help your project though, since it sounds like most users of your project will be on the proprietary/commercial version?

https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/vizio.html

[dylanpyle]

For what it’s worth - we had to audit/list all licenses for OSS components & dependencies on at least 3 separate occasions during fundraising diligence processes. I would guess nobody read it too closely but GPL code would definitely have stuck out. I imagine bigger companies have this process pretty well structured.

[gizmo686]

Its not like paid software is immune from unlicensed use.