GPL Dispute in Austrian health card system

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
---------------------

GPL DISPUTE ON AUSTRIAN ELECTRONIC HEALTH CARD RESOLVED

BERLIN, Germany - Feb. 10, 2006 -- The gpl-violations.org project has
uncovered and resolved violations of the GNU General Public License (GPL) in
the Austrian electronic health card (e-card) system.  

Specifically, those license violations originate by SV-Chipkarten Betriebs- und
Errichtungs GmbH, the company in charge of setting up the Austrian electronic
health card system.

According to gpl-violations.org, SVC B.u.E. GmbH used GPL licensed software,
including Linux, in the Software running on the "GINA" (Gesundsheits
Informations Netzwerk Adapter).  "GINA" is installed at every doctor's clinic
and acts as a gateway between the Health Information Network and the clinic.

"While there is nothing wrong with using GPL licensed software in commercial
products, it is only permitted under certain obligations, such as passing
on the license agreement, and making available the full corresponding 
source code", says Mr. Harald Welte, Linux kernel developer and founder of the
gpl-violations.org project.

The gpl-violations.org project continues to uncover similar GPL violations in
all kinds of embedded products, including media players, console servers, TV
set-top boxes, cellular telephones and networking gear.

Mr Welte continues: "The Free Software community is very happy to see more
and more vendors to use Linux and other Free Software on their devices.
However, Free Software is copyrighted material, much like any other software.
Redistribution can only happen according to its license."

SVC B.u.E. GmbH now makes available the License Text and a written offer to the
complete corresponding source code at 
http://www.chipkarte.at/esvapps/page/page.jsp?p_pageid=220&p_menuid=60699&p_id=5


About the gpl-violations.org project

In the past 24 months, gpl-violations.org has helped uncover and negotiate
more than 60 GPL violations and has obtained numerous out-of-court settlement
agreements. The gpl-violations.org project is a not-for-profit effort to bring
commercial users and vendors of Free Software into compliance with the license
conditions as set forth by the original authors.  The project was founded and
is managed by Mr. Harald Welte, a Linux Kernel developer and Free Software
enthusiast.
 
For more information on the project, its mission, milestones and goals,
please see http://gpl-violations.org/


Media contact:

gpl-violations.org
c/o Harald Welte
Glanzstr. 11
12437 Berlin
GERMANY
Phone: +49-30-24033902
Email: laforge@gpl-violations.org
      

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