Copyleft violations have shifted from accidental non-compliance to deliberate 'incomplete-CCS' strategies, where vendors release partial source code to technically appear compliant while withholding the most critical components. The Software Freedom Conservancy explains that resolving these violations averages 15 rounds of back-and-forth. Despite vendor obstruction, users retain several key rights: they can freely run and study the software privately, analyze and reverse-engineer non-source components, and even redistribute their own corrected binary if they successfully reconstruct the build. Vendors sometimes respond with DMCA takedowns or cease-and-desist letters, but copyleft licenses are irrevocable and those user rights cannot be revoked after the fact. The OpenWrt/Linksys case is cited as a historical example of successfully exercising these rights.
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