Vizio sued over unfairly appropriated software for their SmartCast system

Vizio was sued by the SFC in October 2021 over the alleged unfairly appropriated software in their SmartCast system. The SFC argues that Vizio’s alleged failure to adhere to copyleft-licensing requirements denies rights that are guaranteed to downstream users.

Background

The company Vizio was first informed that it had violated the GPLv2 license for not releasing SmartCast OS's source code by the SFC in August 2018. SFC gave a short summary for consumers to explain why they decided to pursue a lawsuit:

Right-to-repair software is essential for everyone, even if you don't know how to make the repairs yourself. Once upon a time, we had lots of local vendors that could repair and fix TVs when they broke. That’s because TVs were once analog hardware devices that could be taken apart and understood merely by inspection from someone with the sufficient knowledge. TVs today are simply a little computer attached to a large display. As such, the most important part that needs repairs is usually when the software malfunctions, has bugs, or otherwise needs upgrades and changes. The GPL was specifically designed to assure such fixes could be done, and that consumers (or agents those consumers hire on the open market) can make such repairs and changes.

Time and time again, companies stop supporting the software build for the device long before the computer inside the device fails. In other words, these devices are built for planned premature obsolescence.

By refusing to comply with the pro-consumer terms of the GPL, Vizio has the power to disable your TV at any time it wants, over your internet connection, without your knowledge or consent. If Vizio complied with the GPL, all would not be lost in this scenario: volunteers and third-party entities could take GPL’d software as a basis for a replacement for SmartCast. Without these rights, consumers are essentially forced to purchase new devices when they could be repaired.

Lawsuits

There was initial contact between the two parties from 2018 up to 2020, which lead to a lawsuit being filed by the SFC in 2021. Vizio wanted the case to go to the federal court to avoid the contract issue and defend its corner using just federal copyright law. In 2022 however, a federal court judge ruled that the GPL functions as both a copyright license and a contract, and remanded the case back to state court. The judge decided the federal Copyright Act did not preempt the SFC's breach-of-contract allegations, because a contractual obligation for the rights stated in the license are beyond what's required by copyright law.

In 2023, this was confirmed in state court and Vizio's motion for summary judgement was denied. The court decided that users need to be able to enforce these rights themselves. This is because the original creators of the software wouldn't have any financial reason to enforce these rights. If only creators could enforce the rights, they would have to pay all the legal costs without getting any benefit. This would mean the rights would rarely be enforced, which would defeat the purpose of the GPL license.

The case's expected trial date is in September 2025, as it is still an ongoing case.