On Thu, 20 Jul 2000, Joseph Elwell wrote:
>Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2000 15:30:00 -0700 (PDT)
>From: Joseph Elwell <jelwell@yahoo.com>
>To: linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu
>Subject: Linux GPL violations.
>
>I've read through months of archives, trying to find a
>good place to report this, but have not been able to
>find anything.
>
>Where is a good place to report GPL violations
>concerning the Linux Kernel?
Right here. It's the best place indeed. It might not be the
most appropriate place, but if you are looking for results, it
generally reaches the widest audience of insane bigmouths (and I
don't exclude myself) that will fight to no end arguing about it
and causing a big public stir. This causes it to get seen on
Slashdot and the rest is history. If the FSF doesn't jump in,
they likely will eventually, or someone will try and establish
communications with the offending vendor.
It usually results in one of:
1) The vendor eventually realizes they're screwed and does what
is required to get themselves out of the mess legally.
2) The vendor pulls the product
3) Darth Vendor joins dark side of the source. (releases code)
Either way, a huge pissing match occurs that goes on for at least
a month or so, but it usually ends up getting the job done, so it
is worth it.
>I recently got a virign webplayer
>(http://www.virginconnectme.com/). It runs Linux as
>it's operating system. There's no mention of Linux or
>the GPL in the license that is included in the manual.
>In fact the license in the manual concerning the
>"Software" is rather restrictive. And there's no
>mention of how to obtain the source for the kernel.
Hmm. I don't know for sure that a product using Linux must state
that it does, however if you know it does and can prove that, I
believe you can ask them for the source, and the source of any
modifications must be provided. If they use Linux, and run
proprietary software on top of it that isn't linked with GPL code
however, they need not provide source for anything other than the
kernel and other GPL code and modifications that they've made.
>The people who sell the machine to virgin, is Merinta
>(http://www.merinta.com/). You can verify that the
>machines virgin use are running linux
>(http://www.merinta.com/news/release000411.html).
>Merinta, from what I understand from posts by
>(presumedly) employees of Boundless (their mother
>corporation) have many GPL violations according to:
>http://www.kenseglerdesigns.com/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.pl?Action=ShowPost&Board=vwgeneral&Post=17&Idle=0&Sort=0&Order=Descend&Page=0&Session=
Then they likely are violating GPL if they've had many cases of
it in the past. I haven't checked up on your info, but if it is
legit, you should consider emailing the FSF/GNU about it as well
with as much info as you can. Email the authors of any of the
software to which they may be infringing GPL on as well. If
someone infringes on GPL, it is up to the author of the GPL code
to persue it, although many people will often help or advise
along the way.
>I like the idea of all these new Internet devices coming out,
>running Linux. But it worries me that they'll all ignore the
>GPL as they go. Making it more difficult for fututre
>improvements in the kernel code.
That is bound to happen indeed. Until a true lawsuit is filed
relating to GPL, companies are testing how far they can
go. Eventually a suit will occur and follow through to
completion. Should that case be won by the GPL side, then other
companies will have to look out. If it is lost though, it would
be a sad day for GPL indeed.
>I'm not on the Linux kernel mailing list. So please CC
>me directly at jelwell@yahoo.com.
yahoo.com? Try http://www.linuxfreemail.com - Much more
friendly don't you think? ;o)
Take care.
TTYL
-- Mike A. Harris Linux advocate Computer Consultant GNU advocate Capslock Consulting Open Source advocate... Our continuing mission: To seek out knowledge of C, to explore strange UNIX commands, and to boldly code where no one has man page 4.
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