Bryan O'Donoghue typedef@eircom.net writes:
http://www.absoluteastr onomy.com/encyclopedia/F/Fr/Free_Software_Foundation.htm
Says [...]
That page was copied from wikipedia. (I should know, I wrote most of it.)
"absoluteastronomy" and "fact-index" and a few other sites copy the pages from wikipedia, add banner and text ads, and don't provide an edit button. This breaks the collaborative process. Please don't publicise their work.
They're pages are also probably less up-to-date than the original source: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Software_Foundation
I'm wondering, if there has ever been a instance of GPL enforcement in Ireland ?
Court cases? no.
Violation reports? yes. I've made one, FSF sorted it out. (the violator wasn't Irish though.)
I'm quite sure, there are vendors distributing GPL software, without providing source code or the three year offer to provide the source to third parties.
One of the easiest way to find violators is to run 'strings' on a suspected execuatable. Then check the license of the free software code - sometimes it's X Windows licensed code, in which case proprietary inclusion is ok.
The violation report procedure is here: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/gpl-violation.html
[The wikipedia page on FSF s]ays that there is an enforcement, branch of FSF, has this actually ever been used in Ireland, or in Europe outside of German courts ?
Never in Ireland, and I think Germany is the only European country.
FSF tries to settle things without involving the courts. They want compliance, not damages. (That's probably why they call it a Compliance Lab rather than an Enforcement Branch.) There's info about the compliance lab here: http://www.fsf.org/licensing/compliance.html
hth