WARNING: This document is made public for archival and historical purposes only. Not all of the information is current, and accuracy cannot be guaranteed.
Chapter 17 Standard Requests
As we noted above, different copyright holders have different requirements for reinstating a violator’s distribution
rights. Upon violation, you no longer have a license under the GPL. Copyright holders can therefore set their own
requirements outside the license before reinstatement of rights. We have collected below a list of reinstatement
demands that copyright holders often require.
Compliance on all Free Software copyrights. Copyright holders of Free Software often want a
company to demonstrate compliance for all GPL’d software in a distribution, not just their own. A
copyright holder may refuse to reinstate your right to distribute one program unless and until you
comply with the licenses of all Free Software in your distribution.
Notification to past recipients. Users to whom you previously distributed non-compliant software
should receive a communication (email, letter, bill insert, etc.) indicating the violation, describing their
rights under the GPL, and informing them how to obtain a gratis source distribution. If a customer
list does not exist (such as in reseller situations), an alternative form of notice may be required (such
as a magazine advertisement).
Appointment of a GPL Compliance Officer. The software freedom community values personal
accountability when things go wrong. Copyright holders often require that you name someone within the
violating company officially responsible for Free Software license compliance, and that this individual
serve as the key public contact for the community when compliance concerns arise.
Periodic Compliance Reports. Many copyright holders wish to monitor future compliance for some
period of time after the violation. For some period, your company may be required to send regular
reports on how many distributions of binary and source have occurred.
These are just a few possible requirements for reinstatement. In the context of a GPL violation, and particularly
under v2’s termination provision, the copyright holder may have a range of requests in exchange for reinstatement of
rights. These software developers are talented professionals from whose work your company has benefited.
Indeed, you are unlikely to find a better value or more generous license terms for similar software
elsewhere. Treat the copyright holders with the same respect you treat your corporate partners and
collaborators.
