Comment Re:On this 4th of July... (Score 1) 349
This is America. This is how the legal system has always worked.
A does action X.
B objects and threatens to sue A if the doesn't stop X.
A agrees.
GitHub is a distributor. To distribute they need to be properly licensed. They are now asking for assurance of licensing given that Qualcomm is contending they are the copyright holder. That's all that is happening. Qualcomm is factually wrong and under the law they can be sued for being wrong by the licensees (the people about whom they made false complaints).
That is in no way different than what would have happened 100 years ago if someone was distributing a book and someone else complained that the distributor didn't have license to the material.
Works better when B is much richer than A.