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<title>Violations of the GNU Licenses
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2>Violations of the GNU Licenses</h2>
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<p>
If you think you see a violation of the GNU
<a href="/licenses/gpl.html">GPL</a>,
<a href="/licenses/lgpl.html">LGPL</a>,
<a href="/licenses/agpl.html">AGPL</a>, or
<a href="/licenses/fdl.html">FDL</a>,
the first thing you
should do is double-check the facts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Does the distribution contain a copy of the License?</li>
<li>Does it clearly state which software is covered by the License?
Does it say anything misleading, perhaps giving the impression
that something is covered by the License when in fact it is not?</li>
<li>Is source code included in the distribution?</li>
<li>Is a written offer for source code included with a distribution of
just binaries?</li>
<li>Is the available source code complete, or is it designed for
linking in other nonfree modules?</li>
</ul>
<p>
If there seems to be a real violation, the next thing you need to do
is record the details carefully:</p>
<ul>
<li>the precise name of the product</li>
<li>the name of the person or organization distributing it</li>
<li>email addresses, postal addresses and phone numbers for how to
contact the distributor(s)</li>
<li>the exact name of the package whose license is violated</li>
<li>how the license was violated:
<ul>
<li>Is the copyright notice of the copyright holder included?</li>
<li>Is the source code completely missing?</li>
<li>Is there a written offer for source that's incomplete in some
way? This could happen if it provides a contact address or
network URL that's somehow incorrect.</li>
<li>Is there a copy of the license included in the distribution?</li>
<li>Is some of the source available, but not all? If so, what parts
are missing?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>
The more of these details that you have, the easier it is for the
copyright holder to pursue the matter.</p>
<p>
Once you have collected the details, you should send a precise report
to the copyright holders of the packages that are being wrongly
distributed. The GNU licenses are copyright licenses; free licenses
in general are based on copyright. In most countries only they can be
enforced by the copyright holders are legally empowered of the software. In addition, we
encourage the use of any legal mechanism available to act against violations.</p> users for
obtaining complete and corresponding source code, as is their right,
and enforcing full compliance with the GNU GPL. After all, we
developed the GNU GPL to make software free for all its users.</p>
<p>
The Free Software Foundation acts on GPL violations reported on
FSF-copyrighted code. Thus,
<strong>if</strong> the program includes code that is copyright Free
Software Foundation, please send your report
to <a href="mailto:license-violation@gnu.org"><license-violation@gnu.org></a>.
</p>
<p>It's important that we be able to write back to you to get more
information about the violation and the product. Thus, if you use an
anonymous remailer, please provide a return path of some sort. If
you'd like to encrypt your correspondence, just send a brief mail
saying so, and we'll make appropriate arrangements. Because the FSF
endorsed <a href="https://www.fsf.org/licensing/enforcement-principles">the
Principles of Community-Oriented GPL Enforcement</a>, you can rest
assured that your report will not lead to punishing anyone for an
innocent mistake who is willing to correct it.</p>
<p>
The FSF offers assistance and advice to any other copyright holder who
wishes to enforce GNU licenses. But we cannot We do not act on our own where we do
not hold copyright. Thus, be sure We recommend to find out who are the copyright
holders of the software, and report the violation to
them.</p> them, even if you
decide to use a legal mechanism that allows you to seek compliance on
your own.</p>
<p>
Our colleagues at the Software Freedom Conservancy do GPL enforcement
for many free programs, through their own copyrights and with
coalitions of copyright holders in those programs. The programs
include Linux, Git, Samba, QEMU, and others. If you encounter a GPL
violation on those programs, we suggest you
visit <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/"> the
Conservancy's copyleft compliance page</a> for the up-to-date list
of programs it handles, and how to report violations.</p>
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<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
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There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>
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<p class="unprintable">Updated:
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$Date: 2025/03/14 16:16:02 $
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