Stefano Sanfilippo wrote: > I am bringing to your attention the case of PicoTech, a UK-based > hardware producer, whose drivers are clearly GPL-licensed but firmly > refuses to release source code.
For enforcement, the GPL relies on the (threat of the) loss of the upstream license (or on criminal persecution based on that lack of license). However, this particular driver appears to be a simple userspace library written by PicoTech and is not derived from any other code. As the copyright holder, they can do with this driver whatever they want. If they violate the terms of the GPL, they are, as far as copyright law is concerned, only hurting themselves, so nobody else has the standing to persecute them. They also distribute a copy of libusb (named libusb_pico). The libusb copyright holders could force them to stop distributing _that_, or to ship the libusb source code. Regards, Clemens
