Skype caves in to GPL requirements

Skype has abandoned its efforts to avoid complying with an open-source licence that requires it to provide source code with Linux-based VoIP phones.

The company has dropped its appeal against its conviction last July in a German court of failure to comply with the General Public License version 2 (GPLv2). The license requires vendors to ship source code with any open-source product, but Skype's WSKP100 phone was sold without giving users access to the source code, according to a case brought by gpl-violations.org, a group policing open-source license violations.

Skype's appeal argued that the GPL license was not valid in Germany, claiming that GPL breaks the country's antitrust laws. This was thrown out by the appeals court and Skype has abandoned its efforts to overturn the conviction, according to software developer Harald Welte, who runs gpl-violations.org.

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