The anatomy of a fraud
RJack
and ERIK ANDERSEN v.BEST BUY CO., INC, et.al.
http://www.worldlawdirect.com/forum/copyright-trademark-patent/32809-copyright-lawsuit-16-companies-sued-software-freedom-
law-center.html
Here are relevant paragraphs from the SFLC-Andersen complaint:
20. Mr. Andersen is the author and developer of the BusyBox
computer program, and the owner of copyrights in that computer
program. BusyBox is a single computer program that comprises a
set of computing tools and optimizes them for computers with
limited resources, such as cell phones, PDAs, and other small,
specialized electronic devices. BusyBox is extremely
customizable, fast, and flexible, and, on information and belief,
is used in countless products sold by many manufacturers all over
the world.
31. Mr. Andersen is, and at all relevant times has been, a
copyright owner under United States copyright law in the FOSS
software program known as BusyBox. See, e.g., �BusyBox,
v.0.60.3.�, Copyright Reg. No. TX0006869051 (10/2/2008).
Plaintiff Software Freedom Conservancy is the corporate home for
the BusyBox project and the designated copyright enforcement
agent for Mr. Andersen with respect to BusyBox.
Here is a link to the source code for BusyBox v.0.60.3:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~lennartb/busybox-0.60.3.tar.bz2
Here is the copyright registration filed by Andersen:
Type of Work: Computer File Registration Number / Date:
TX0006869051 / 2008-10-02 Application Title: BusyBox, v.0.60.3.
Title: BusyBox, v.0.60.3. Description: Print material. Copyright
Claimant: Erik Andersen, 1971- . Date of Creation: 2002 Date
of Publication: 2002-04-27 Authorship on Application: Erik
Andersen, 1971- ; Domicile: United States; Citizenship: United
States. Authorship: New and revised computer source code by Erik
Andersen. Pre-existing Material: Previous version of the program
and computer program code from other sources. Basis of Claim: New
and revised computer source code by Erik Andersen. Copyright
Note: C.O. correspondence. Names: Andersen, Erik, 1971-
Inspection of the relevant facts of record listed above will reveal
that Erik Andersen and the SFLC are promoting a criminal fraudulent
copyright registration. See:
17 USC Sec. 506. Criminal offenses...
(e) False Representation. �
Any person who knowingly makes a false representation
of a material fact in the application for copyright
registration provided for by section 409, or in any
written statement filed in connection with the application,
shall be fined not more than $2,500.
1) The copyright registration clearly claims "BusyBox, v.0.60.3".
2) The Complaint para. 20 clearly states, "Mr. Andersen is the author
and developer of the BusyBox computer program, and the owner of
copyrights in that computer program. BusyBox is a single computer
program".
3) The Complaint para. 31 clearly states, "Mr. Andersen is, and
at all relevant times has been, a copyright owner under United States
copyright law in the FOSS software program known as BusyBox".
4) A cursory examination of the source code files in the tarball
busybox-0.60.3.tar.bz2 reveals multiple authors of the source code
modules.
5) The conclusion that the the copyright registration statement
by Erik Andersen:
"Mr. Andersen is the author and developer of the BusyBox
computer program, and the owner of copyrights in that computer
program."
comprises a knowingly false statement is inescapable.
Sincerely,
RJack
RJack
> 4) A cursory examination of the source code files in the tarball
> busybox-0.60.3.tar.bz2 reveals multiple authors of the source code
> modules.
The contents of the AUTHORS file in tarball busybox-0.60.3.tar.bz2:
List of the authors of code contained in BusyBox.
If you have code in BusyBox, you should be listed here. If you should
be listed, or the description of what you have done needs more detail,
or is incorect, _please_ let me know.
-Erik
-----------
Erik Andersen <ande...@codepoet.org>, <ande...@debian.org>
Tons of new stuff, major rewrite of most of the
core apps, tons of new apps as noted in header files.
Edward Betts <edw...@debian.org>
expr, hostid, logname, tty, wc, whoami, yes
John Beppu <be...@codepoet.org>
du, head, nslookup, sort, tee, uniq
Brian Candler <B.Ca...@pobox.com>
tiny-ls(ls)
Randolph Chung <ta...@debian.org>
fbset, ping, hostname, and mkfifo
Dave Cinege <dci...@psychosis.com>
more(v2), makedevs, dutmp, modularization, auto links file,
various fixes, Linux Router Project maintenance
Magnus Damm <da...@opensource.se>
tftp client
insmod powerpc support
Larry Doolittle <ldoo...@recycle.lbl.gov>
pristine source directory compilation, lots of patches and fixes.
Gennady Feldman <gfel...@cachier.com>
Sysklogd (single threaded syslogd, IPC Circular buffer support,
logread), various fixes.
Karl M. Hegbloom <kar...@debian.org>
cp_mv.c, the test suite, various fixes to utility.c, &c.
Daniel Jacobowitz <d...@debian.org>
mktemp.c
Matt Kraai <kr...@alumni.carnegiemellon.edu>
documentation, bugfixes, test suite
John Lombardo <jo...@deltanet.com>
dirname, tr
Glenn McGrath <bu...@optushome.com.au>
ar, dpkg, dpkg-deb
Vladimir Oleynik <d...@simtreas.ru>
cmdedit; ports: ash, stty, traceroute; locale, various fixes
and irreconcilable critic of everything not perfect.
Bruce Perens <br...@pixar.com>
Original author of BusyBox. His code is still in many apps.
Tim Riker <T...@Rikers.org>
bug fixes, member of fan club
Kent Robotti <rob...@metconnect.com>
reset, tons and tons of bug reports and patchs.
Chip Rosenthal <ch...@unicom.com>, <cros...@covad.com>
wget - Contributed by permission of Covad Communications
Pavel Roskin <pro...@gnu.org>
Lots of bugs fixes and patches.
Gyepi Sam <gy...@praxis-sw.com>
Remote logging feature for syslogd
Linus Torvalds <torv...@transmeta.com>
mkswap, fsck.minix, mkfs.minix
Mark Whitley <ma...@codepoet.org>
grep, sed, cut, xargs, style-guide, new-applet-HOWTO, bug fixes, etc.
Charles P. Wright <cpwr...@villagenet.com>
gzip, mini-netcat(nc)
Enrique Zanardi <ezan...@ull.es>
tarcat (since removed), loadkmap, various fixes, Debian maintenance
Emanuele Aina <emanue...@tiscali.it>
run-parts
Sincerely,
RJack