VMware is being sued in a new legal action over alleged violations of GPL (GNU Public License) open-source licensed code from the Linux kernel. The legal action is being served in the district court of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany and is backed by the Software Freedom Conservancy in support of leading Linux kernel software developer Christoph Hellwig.
“Conservancy and Hellwig specifically assert that VMware has combined copyrighted Linux code, licensed under GPLv2, with their own proprietary code called ‘vmkernel’ and distributed the entire combined work without providing nor offering complete, corresponding source code for that combined work under terms of the GPLv2,” The Conservacy states. “Hellwig is an extensive copyright holder in the portions of Linux that VMware misappropriated and used together in a single, new work without permission.”