Am 20.06.2013 22:11, schrieb Enrico Mioso:
> Hi all guys! My name is Enrico. I'm writing this message to you all, to
> signal a GPL violation.
> I don't know if this is exaclty the right place to do so - still, I felt
> confortable in writing to the tech list more than the others, due to my
> inexperience in legal issues.
>
> The main motivation behind this message, is the respect I desire for the
> OpenWrt team itself, for the GPL license and all the people who
> contribute their code.
>
> Status:
> In the device, an OpenWrt Kamikaze release is used (8.04), booted with
> the
> U-Boot source code. the user doesn't receiver any source code, neither
> the
> permission to modify anything in the device, being the boot-loader
> password
> protected.
>
> Links:
> Here is the root filesystem:
> http://intercity-vpn.de/files/openwrt/arcadyan_twonkey-networks_vodafone_easybox_904/
>
>
> and here the full firmware image, European version:
> http://media.vodafone.de/www/assets/software/FW904/UEfullimage_AT904L-01.07.bin
>
> can someone help us?
This looks to me like a pretty clear case.
Have you asked Vodafone für the GPL/LGPL sourcecode(s) yet?
If yes, how did they respond?
If not, I would suggest to do so.
I did this several times in the past and in most cases it did take some
effort to overcome the customer firewall (aka "support") and get to the
right people but in the end they started to understand and to resolve
the issue.
It is your right as a receiver of the compiled binary to ask the
supplier of that binary for the GPL/LGPL sourcecodes that were used to
create exactly those binaries. And there is no way around it and no
reason to deny you that right. And this is what you need to convey to
Vodafone. They *have* to comply. Important here is to set a time limit -
be nice and say 10 working days.
If you have problems formulating this letter, let me know and I can help
with this. If you do not want to hassle with them, same offer is valid,
tell me and I will try my best. The binary is publicly available so
practically anyone that can download this blob can also ask for the source.
If they then still refuse to do so we need to take it one step further.
This means formal legal stuff - a cease and desist letter from a lawyer.
This needs to happen within around four weeks after your/our first
contact with them - this is four weeks after they were made aware of the
licensing violation. The four weeks are not cast in stone but are common
in this area.
If they then refuse to sign the cease and desist letter and do not give
the code it must be taken to court, i.e. we need to contract a lawyer,
take the case to court in order to get a "distribution stop warrant"
("einstweilige Verfügung" in German, I do not know the exact English term).
Cheers
nils
