Cease and Desist

[rnorris97]

Sooo, I got a cease an desist letter in the mail Saturday , from a law firm claiming to represent Google. It told me to stop downloading the source code from a number of devices. Is it real?

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Check your PM box, please. There's a chance it could be a fake but in the event it's not I don't want you to take any chances.

 

[Invincible Madness]

Why would downloading something opensource be a bad thing? (unless it's not opensource) someone please explain.

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Nowhere was "opensource" said. It COULD have something to do with Google vs Oracle but the jury's out until I see the actual letter.

 

[twtippets]

So, as I have found out Oracle is represented by Boies Schiller Flexner of Armonk, N.Y., and Morrison & Foerster of Palo Alto, Calif. and Google is represented by Keker & Van Nest of San Francisco. If the letter isn't from one of those firms then you are probably out of the loop. However it does seem fishy, Google doesn't care about the software, Google is in it for the advertising. Oracle would be the one issuing the cease and desist since it is their "java" that they are fighting for. Also, Oracle is filing the suit, not Google.

 

[kenny70452]

Lifehacker

story above might be related.

edit

a snippit says 15 minutes ago but that was just the snippet not the story thus the story above is old news. sorry.

 

[Infinity]

It wouldn't be the first time that this has happened. The Cyanogen situation was due to them including Google Maps and other closed-source programs in the ROM.

Edit: Kenny beat me to it.

 

[Small_law]

There should be contact information in the letter. Call the firm, don't email, and speak to whomever signed the letter. If they don't answer, leave a message, but call every day until you get someone on the line. Don't bother contacting Google. Ask them to explain exactly what you're doing wrong. And I have to thrown this: if it's a serious enough issue for you, you may want to seek legal counsel.

I've actually never looked at the open source license for android. I'm wondering what exactly it says with respect to what is open and available for public use under the open license and what is not.

 

[drewwalton19216801]

There should be contact information in the letter. Call the firm, don't email, and speak to whomever signed the letter. If they don't answer, leave a message, but call every day until you get someone on the line. Don't bother contacting Google. Ask them to explain exactly what you're doing wrong. And I have to thrown this: if it's a serious enough issue for you, you may want to seek legal counsel.

I've actually never looked at the open source license for android. I'm wondering what exactly it says with respect to what is open and available for public use under the open license and what is not.

If the letter is real, the above advise should be followed. But I perwonally can't recommend (potentially expensive) legal advice until seeing the document.

 

[scifan]

The article from lifehacker appears to have been from September 2009...

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Lifehacker

story above might be related.

edit

a snippit says 15 minutes ago but that was just the snippet not the story thus the story above is old news. sorry.

That's from 2009...the whole gapps thing.

 

[rukin5197]

Isn't the Cease and Desist the whole headline of the lawcase that Google had with Cyanogenmod?

 

[Va1ha11a]

When you call them, dial *67 and than the number. that protects you from caller id and lists your number as unknown so you don't recieve any nastygrams from them if They happen to be shifty

 

[rnorris97]

Page1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Page2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Page3 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Page1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Page2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Page3 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

What the hell?

You need to contact the Electronic Frontier Foundation immediately. Here's a link to their contact info: https://www.eff.org/about/contact

Call their main office and ask them what you should do. DO NOT respond to the letter without legal representation.

Also, that's a bull-crap C&D notice. The phrase "copying Android" means absolutely nothing since Android itself is open-source software. How can you have "unlawful copying of Google Android Source Code" when GOOGLE provides clear instructions on how to COPY and BUILD Android? I threw this on Google+ (hope you don't mind) because this is total nonsense.

 

[anthonycr]

Wow... hope I don't get one of those letters.

 

[Warlord721]

Catanese & Wells? Well a quick Google search shows that they were representing the dubious MyCleanPC.com and Doublemyspeed.com (remeber the cheesy TV commericials?) programs that supposedly "clean and speed up your PC" against some guy that blogged that the software was a scam. Didn't sound they they got anywhere with it either... I'm not going to say you have nothing to worry about, but seems to me Google would have some "bigger" lawfirm than these guys....

 

[drewwalton19216801]

Catanese & Wells? Well a quick Google search shows that they were representing the dubious MyCleanPC.com and Doublemyspeed.com (remeber the cheesy TV commericials?) programs that supposedly "clean and speed up your PC" against some guy that blogged that the software was a scam. Didn't sound they they got anywhere with it either... I'm not going to say you have nothing to worry about, but seems to me Google would have some "bigger" lawfirm than these guys....

Oh God....

Well rnorris97, I'm going to get in contact with a few friends in San Francisco and see what the hell this is all about.

 

[rnorris97]

Oh God....

Well rnorris97, I'm going to get in contact with a few friends in San Francisco and see what the hell this is all about.

Ok thank you, because I was confused whether I should stop or ignore it, because it didn't even come certified mail.

 

[Lee_Bo]

I thought Cease and Desist letters were hand delivered by a paralegal, or sent by registered letter. If it was regular mail, how do they know you got it?

Personally, it sounds fishy to me.