Re: Linksys WRT54G and the GPL

["Oliver M. Bolzer" <oliver@gol.com>]

On Sun, Jun 08, 2003 at 09:57:04PM +0100, Peter Westwood <peter.westwood@talk21.com> wrote...
 
> Looking through the latest firmware update available :
> http://www.buffalo-technology.com/support/firmware.htm

> No mention here or anywhere on there site of the GPL or the source code to
> what they are distributing!

I have another product from Melco/Buffalo and found out, that it had
Linux and other GPLed (and BSD with adv. clause and Apache with end-user
doc clasue and and and) materials on it, without the manual or their web page
mentioning it. Their telephone support 
in Japan (where the stuff comes from) didn't give sh*t about it and
repeatedly told me about their policy of not telling anything about the
inner workings of products and even refused to either elevate me to talk
to somebody else or give me an contacting point to either their legal
or PR departments.
I directly called the PR guy responsible for that line of products at their
headquater (good to be on their list of press) and explained the situation
to him. He promised to clear it up with legal and the developers.
After about a week (and me ranting about an anonymous company in my blog)
he got back with a very detailed and polite answer about the situation.
They DID know about the issues involved and their obligations. Just that
their other hand (like support and web page creation) isn't up to the
"new" style and that they were fixing it. I also found out, that the
"quick setup" leaflet in the product actually contained a small note
that the product included GPLed software. 

It has been 3 month since. If they havn't gotten their act together 
still, they need to be reminded of it.

-- 
	Oliver M. Bolzer
	oliver@gol.com

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