And GPL violators need not fear punitive damages - the Free Software Foundation is interested in compliance with the licence and ensuring that it continues into the future. The organisation is not into extortion.

Former FSF chief legal officer Eben Moglen set down the process long ago. When a violation is alleged, those reporting this are asked to help establish necessary facts. Further investigation is then undertaken if needed.

This stage has been reached many times and what Moglen describes as "a quiet initial contact" helps to resolve the problem.

"Parties thought they were complying with (the) GPL, and are pleased to follow advice on the correction of an error. Sometimes, however, we believe that confidence-building measures will be required, because the scale of the violation or its persistence in time makes mere voluntary compliance insufficient," Moglen writes.

"In such situations we work with organisations to establish GPL-compliance programs within their enterprises, led by senior managers who report to us, and directly to their enterprises' managing boards, regularly. In particularly complex cases, we have sometimes insisted upon measures that would make subsequent judicial enforcement simple and rapid in the event of future violation."

He also points that in a decade of enforcing the GPL (his statement was made in 2001) he had never insisted on the payment of damages to the Free Software Foundation. Neither has the wrongdoer been required to make a public mea culpa.

"Our position has always been that compliance with the license, and security for future good behavior, are the most important goals. We have done everything to make it easy for violators to comply, and we have offered oblivion with respect to past faults," he says.

FUDmeisters, please take note. 

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