SFC-funded lawsuit gets software repair and reinstall for users of AVM routers

[Software Freedom Conservancy]

SFC-funded lawsuit gets software repair and reinstall for users of AVM
				routers
AVM chooses not to appeal purchaser's suit that established users'
			rights on wireless router

URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2025/jan/09/avm-copyleft-lawsuit-resolved-with-install/

Social media:
  https://social.sfconservancy.org/notice/ApuUGqFodP5c7JhPAu
  https://x.com/conservancy/status/1877381229869404568

Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) today announces the conclusion of a
lawsuit that we funded and supported in Germany. (As is typical with
German cases, SFC was unable to give public updates during the case.)
The defendant, Berlin-based AVM, ultimately delivered the necessary
information to reinstall modified software on their device. Delivery of
this information resolved the lawsuit. The plaintiff was Sebastian
Steck, who received a grant from SFC to pursue this work. Steck
purchased an AVM router in May 2021 and quickly found that the source
code candidate which AVM sent him could not be compiled and reinstalled
onto his router. AVM, the largest home router manufacturer in Germany,
refused to correct its source code candidate. Steck sued AVM in a Berlin
court in July 2023.

Months after the lawsuit was filed, AVM finally provided Steck with all
remaining source code that Steck requested, including “the scripts used
to control … installation of the library”. Steck brought his claim under
copyleft terms of the Lesser General Public License, version 2.1
(LGPLv2.1). As part of the case's resolution, AVM paid Steck's
attorney's fees. The appeal deadline elapsed two weeks ago. AVM chose
not to appeal the court's ruling on the fees.

The favorable result of this lawsuit exemplifies the power of copyleft —
granting users the freedom to modify, repair, and secure the software on
their own devices. Companies like AVM receive these immense benefits
themselves. This lawsuit reminded AVM that downstream users must receive
those very same rights under copyleft.

Historically, lawsuits have focused on the copyrights licensed under GPL
(or the GPL and LGPL together). Steck's lawsuit uniquely focused
exclusively on users' rights under the LGPL. Steck's work showed that
despite being a "Lesser" license than GPL, LGPLv2.1 still guarantees
users the right to repair, modify and reinstall modified versions of the
software on their device. There is now no doubt that both GPL and LGPL
mandate the device owner's ability to make changes to the software in
the flash memory so those changes persist across reboots. AVM initially
tried to claim that changes in volatile memory (RAM) would suffice, but
Steck successfully argued that users must be able to install such
changes to the permanent storage. AVM eventually provided the required
installation information for just that.

Both SFC and Steck remain frustrated that companies like AVM usually
ignore user requests under copyleft until a lawsuit is filed.
Nevertheless, we are happy to see that the legal process confirmed
Steck's rights, and required AVM to pay Steck's legal costs. “I am
pleased that this litigation compelled AVM to provide the compilation
and reinstallation information in the filings,” Steck said. “I look
forward to them amending their publicly available source code archives
with the complete scripts used to control compilation and installation
soon.” In the meantime, we at SFC published these updated source code
archives ourselves, along with the key court documents in the case. [0]

At SFC we continue to work fervently toward a future where everyone has
the practical ability to repair and modify the software on their
devices. If you share this desire for change and want to support our
efforts to make it a reality, we strongly encourage you to donate now.
[1] We are nearing the end of our annual fundraiser and have nearly
reached our match goal, but we're not there yet. Anything you can donate
to help us will be doubled through our matching sponsors, until the
match is reached. Please donate now to take advantage of this
opportunity to maximize your impact!

[0] https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/avm.html
[1] https://sfconservancy.org/sustainer/