In 2000, I wrote a Linux device driver that “decrypted” the output of a certain device, and my company, which hosted open-source projects, agreed to host it.
The “encryption” was only a XOR, but that was enough for the maker of said device to sue my company under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 for hundreds of millions in damages.
The story got a lot of press back then because it highlighted how stupid the then-new DMCA was, and also because there was a David open-source enthusiasts vs. Goliath heartless corporation flavor to it.
Our lawyer decided to pick up the fight to generate free publicity for our fledgling company. For discovery, the maker of the device requested “a copy of any and all potentially infringing source code”. They weren’t specific and they didn’t specify the medium.
So we printed the entire Linux kernel source code including my driver in 5-pt font and sent them the boxes of printouts. Legally they had been served, so there was nothing they could do about it.
Pretty sure the can go to the judge and as you to deliver the information in a more friendly format.
Yea, as entertaining as this is, it sounds like they already had the source from the repo and made the request to make sure nothing was being hidden from them (standard discovery). They would have just re-requested in digital format.
Yea, as entertaining as this is, it sounds like they already had the source from the repo and made the request to make sure nothing was being hidden from them (standard discovery). They would have just re-requested in digital format.