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On Tuesday 26 April 2005 10:38 pm, Robin Cornelius wrote:
Here's a question Some hardware suppliers have been supplying a binary only kernel module that is built with the GPL flag enabled, ie modinfo shows licence GPL.
Not LGPL? Isn't a module more of a library?
Therefor one assumes the module is gpl, yes?.
Yes. They must provide the source code on request. They have distributed the software and declared that the GPL is in effect for the software that they have packaged, therefore they are bound by the GPL.
Ok so no source code is available, lots of people complain and get basically no response from company.Very recently *source* code for thus module *turns up* in linspires apt pool BUT the source code headers don't show GPL however it is clear (and known but not provable, unless i can generate the same md5 sum for the binary how can i prove it)
Only the author can prove this.
that this was the code used to build afore mentioned module and in the code it is set to enable the GPL flag on the binary!
I suppose an md5sum (or sha1sum) might be adequate but it could be hard to get a match. Even after stripping the debugging symbols, there's no guarantee you're using the same optimisations or other gcc options.
Is this GPL or not, or is it just a mess
It is a mess. So many companies just don't understand the GPL, free software or open source.
that the company have left them selves open to *legal problems* and I would be well advised to keep out of the middle until it comes down one side or the other?
I would recommend caution - there are grounds here for dispute because the source code, as released, is only under copyright. You need to be able to tie the code to the binary. Your best way of doing that is the author. It's difficult because under the GPL, they have an obligation to declare that the GPL is in operation. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.dcglug.org.uk/ http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/
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