The goals of the project are, according to its website, to: In May 2008, gpl-violations.org and the Free Software Foundation Europe Freedom Task Force announced that they were to deepen their previous cooperation.

Project creator Harald Welte received the 2007 FSF Award for the Advancement of Free Software, partly because of his work on gpl-violations.org.

In 2005, the gpl-violations.org project uncovered evidence that Fortinet had used GPL code in its products against the terms of the license, and used cryptographic tools to conceal the violation.

The violation was alleged to have occurred in the FortiOS system, which the gpl-violations.org project said contained elements of the Linux kernel.

[7] The judgement[8][9] provided the on-record, legal precedent that the GPL is valid and that it will stand up in German courts.