Looks like Sony has gone from prosecuting pirates to becoming one. Only days after the PS4 announcement too.
Over at the KDE Blog, Jonathan Riddell explains that Sony is using a KDE icon in violation of the LGPL3 license under which it is released:
“Nowhere on their website terms of use does it list the LGPL 3 licence it may be copied under (It does say “Any unauthorised use or copying of site content, or use of site content which breaches these Terms (or their spirit) may violate trade mark, copyright and other proprietary rights, and have civil and criminal consequences” although it also says “You must seek and obtain the written consent the operator of this site before creating any link to this site” so I don’t give that page any legal credit.)”
The page in question is a ‘Choose your Vaio‘ webpage on the Sony UK site.
What does one do in cases like this? It seems that legal action would be a waste of time and money…hopefully, Sony takes note of this and corrects the issue. They’ve been heavily invested in Linux and Open Source for many years now with their platforms and I’d like to think they’d have learned from their rootkit debacle that you should act quickly to fix things before they blow up on the internet.
