Re: freebox possible GPL violation

[linux-os (Dick Johnson)]

On Wed, 5 Oct 2005, Arjan van de Ven wrote:

>
>> Your task will be to prove that the kernel they upload to your box is a
>> modified Linux kernel (by "modified Linux kernel", I mean no modules but
>> the kernel itself).
>>
>> So, the first step would be to catch/sniff this binary image, then
>> analyze it.
>>
>> But, as long as you cannot prove that Free has done internal
>> modifications to the Linux kernel which are not released in any way,
>> your case is quite thin.
>
> why?
>
> The GPL holds modified or not...
>
> (and that includes drivers if they are distributed together with the gpl
> kernel as part of a bigger work)

The unmodified kernel and the unmodified drivers are available
from ftp.kernel.org and other sources, the vendor doesn't have
to supply them, only tell you where you can get them if you want them.

Anything the vendor wrote in user-space is the vendor's own stuff.
The vendor doesn't have to supply them at all.

Transparently upgrading across the network is a pretty good idea.
It seems that the "secret" protocol they are using pissed you off
so you think they must be doing something wrong.

Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.13 on an i686 machine (5589.55 BogoMips).
Warning : 98.36% of all statistics are fiction.

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