SFC v. Vizio
A 2021 lawsuit testing whether the buyer of a GPL-powered device can demand the source code themselves, without owning any copyright.
Vizio's smart TVs run Linux, BusyBox and other GPL and LGPL code, but the source never shipped. Normally only copyright holders can sue, and most kernel developers would rather not. So Software Freedom Conservancy tried another route: it bought the TVs and sued in California state court as a party to the licence, arguing that the GPL gives every recipient an enforceable right.
Vizio tried to move the case to federal court, where it would have become a copyright matter, and was sent back in 2022, so the question is to be settled under contract law. If the third-party beneficiary theory holds, every owner of a router or television becomes a potential plaintiff — exactly what the GPL's authors had in mind, and exactly what few manufacturers had budgeted for.