05.13.10

Samsung Goes Beyond Corruption and Starts Bullying Critics With Lawsuits

Posted in DRM, Google, GPL, Microsoft, Samsung at 3:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Lee Kun-Hee, Chairman and CEO of Samsung Electronics and a criminal (picture from Gizmodo)

Summary: Samsung gives another reason to boycott Samsung; Techrights reader to force Samsung to disclose GPL-licensed source code

ONE of the companies which we urge/called for a boycott against is Samsung, which puts a Microsoft tax on Linux and Android. We have only just discovered that in addition to Samsung’s history of fraud there is also a vicious attempt to silence critics. Here is this new example:

Samsung Sues Satirist, Claiming Criminal Defamation, Over Satirical Column Poking Fun At Samsung

[..]

As satire goes, it seems pretty tame (and, really, not that funny). But, Samsung went ballistic, suing Breen, the Korea Times and its top editor for both civil and criminal libel charges. Supposedly, after Korea Times ran a “clarification” that was written by Samsung itself, the paper and its editor were dropped from the lawsuit, but the suit against Breen remains. And, since there are criminal charges, not only could he face hefty fines (perhaps $1 million), he might also face jailtime. For writing a satirical Christmas day column. Tough audience.

To quote the original:

The South Korean electronics giant’s libel suit against a British columnist shows both the power of corporate conglomerates and a different view of defamation, satire and free speech.

Samsung has really gotten some nerve. If anyone should be sued, it is Samsung executives, not some satirist. Here at Techrights we don’t do satire; instead, we provide factual information and opinions.

One of our IRC contributors and regulars, Ryan, has just take action upon the suspicion of GPL violations at Samsung (he was unable to find the source code on their site). Here is his initial report.

I own a Samsung BD-C5500 Blu Ray Disc player:

In the Support section, it offers to show you the licenses for all the free and open source software they used, which happens to be most of the software on their Blu Ray player, the GPL/LGL software alone includes:

Linux kernel, Busybox, Binutils, wireless_tools, uClibc, directfb, ffmpeg, smpeg, libgphoto2, libusb, libiconv, libmms.

As we have been saying since 2007, boycott Samsung. It is an unethical company riddled with corruption and it harms Linux more than it helps it. Samsung is merely an exploiter, not a contributor. It also spreads Microsoft's DRM. █

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