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* GPL violations by wireless manufacturers
@ 2003-06-24 10:10 vanstadentenbrink
  2003-06-24 10:38 ` David Schwartz
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 16+ messages in thread
From: vanstadentenbrink @ 2003-06-24 10:10 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-kernel

[ Please CC replies as I am not subscribed ]

I have had some luck resolving the GPL violation by wireless 
manufacturers issue. I have sent letters regarding the issue to 
Linksys, Belkin and Buffalo. This is the letter I received from 
Buffalo Technologies and below that is the letter I sent to the three 
manufacturers:

--------------
Hi Sir,
 
We are aware of these requirements and we have the PDF document 
(attached) and a statement/notice that will be put onto the website 
within 48 hours for this product. Please let me know if you require 
further assistance or if you would like to talk further.
 
NOTICE:
This product uses software of GPL/LGPL.
You have the right to acquire source code, change it, and re-
distribute it.
The warranty on the product is only applicable if the original or an 
official Buffalo firmware is on the unit.
Please refer to GNU_LICENSE.PDF.
We don’t have any obligation to pay if a user has to pay to 
distribute or change the source code.
 
Thanks for your time.
 
Craig Reid
Technical Sales Engineer
-----------

-----------
Dear sirs, 

Hereby I would like to inform you that the software on at least one  
of your products is offered in violation of the General Public  
License (GPL) as published by the GNU Software Foundation.  This may 
not be known to you due to inclusion of acquired or  licensed 
technology from third-party manufacturers in your  product.  

The affected product is the Buffalo (Melco) WBR-G54 Wireless  Access 
Point 

The infringement of the GPL consists of the following: 

Your product makes use of Linux kernel version 2.4.5 and  Busybox 
software, which are both licensed under GPL  terms and conditions. 
The GPL allows copying and  distribution of licensed software, 
provided that the  complete corresponding machine-readable source 
code or  a written offer to a complete machine-readable copy of the  
corresponding source code accompanies the product. As  you have 
fulfilled neither of these obligations, you are in  violation GPL 
terms and conditions.
 
Your product includes a kernel driver module that is  inserted into 
the GPL licensed Linux kernel when the  product is turned on. There 
is no possible way for the user  to prevent the insertion of this 
module into the kernel. It is  also impossible for the user to remove 
the kernel module  from the running kernel. The operation of the 
included  software on your product depends on the operation of the  
kernel module. For these reasons the kernel driver module  is not 
offered as a separate work as described in Section II  of the GPL and 
must therefore be distributed under the  terms and conditions of the 
GPL. As you have not  included the complete corresponding machine-
readable  source code or a written offer to a complete machine- 
readable copy of the corresponding source code you are  clearly in 
violation of GPL terms and conditions.
 

Because of the huge liability your company could be facing I  advise 
you to take appropriate measures to cease offering your  product in 
violation of the GPL.  


With Regards, 


Richard Ten Brink
--------

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
* RE: GPL violations by wireless manufacturers
@ 2003-06-25 18:53 Andrew Miklas
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 16+ messages in thread
From: Andrew Miklas @ 2003-06-25 18:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: davids; +Cc: vanstadentenbrink, linux-kernel

Hi,

David Schwartz wrote:
>  Perhaps it's not a separate work from the programs that access it, but it's
>  certainly a separate work from the kernel. The kernel can operate just fine
>  without the module. The module extends the kernel through a well-defined
>  boundary.

I'm not sure this is entirely accurate.  A quick look at the module in 
question (wl.o) with "nm" reveals quite a few interesting imports and 
exports.

The module, for example, makes approximately 50 imports from the kernel where 
the import doesn't seem to be part of the regular kernel tree (ie. I searched 
using http://lxr.linux.no to no avail).  However, these symbols seem to be  
defined in the kernel included with the device.  That is to say, the symbols 
aren't provided by another module.  Therefore, it would appear that this 
module will not work with a "stock" Linux kernel.

These symbols (they all appear to be routines) begin with the following 
prefixes: bcm, dma, osl, pkt, sb.

The purpose of some of these routines can be determined by the function name.  
For example, the 'sb' series of functions seem to be used for manipulating 
the Sonics SiliconBackplane that is used by the BCM43xx.  The DMA routines 
might be used to handle the TX and RX ring buffers.  Some of the others I am 
not so sure about.  (By the way, this was also discovered by Lex Winter, 
whose post to LKML seems to show up in groups.google, but not in the other 
archives.)

Additionally, the module exports (ie. shows up with 'T' in an nm listing) no 
less than 117 symbols.  Some of these appear pretty low-level: 

read_radio_reg
wlc_set_11a_txpower
wlc_set_11b_radiopwr
wlc_set_channel
wlc_aphy_temp_sense
write_radio_reg

to name just a few.


Admittingly, I don't know very much about what constitutes the standard kernel 
to wireless driver interface for Linux.  Also, I don't know if all these 
exported functions are actually called externally.  However, after looking 
through some other wireless driver modules (airo, hermes, orinoco) I can't 
seem to find an example where a module exports nearly as many functions.

If anyone would like a copy of the symbol list for wl.o (it requires a MIPS 
binutils), please drop me an e-mail, and I'd be happy to send it out.  
Additionally, if I've made any mistakes in these conclusions, please also let 
me know.



-- Andrew

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 16+ messages in thread
[parent not found: <20030628151540.A16039@mn.rr.com>]

end of thread, other threads:[~2003-06-29 21:09 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 16+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2003-06-24 10:10 GPL violations by wireless manufacturers vanstadentenbrink
2003-06-24 10:38 ` David Schwartz
2003-06-24 11:20   ` vanstadentenbrink
2003-06-24 18:18     ` David Schwartz
2003-06-24 23:37       ` vanstadentenbrink
2003-06-25  2:42       ` Horst von Brand
2003-06-29  3:14         ` Andre Hedrick
2003-06-24 18:25     ` developers and GPL in products (Was: Re: GPL violations by wireless manufacturers) Roger Larsson
2003-06-24 23:26       ` Krzysztof Halasa
2003-06-25  0:27       ` Zack Gilburd
2003-06-25  0:39         ` Bryan Andersen
2003-06-25  0:41         ` developers and GPL in products (Was: Re: GPL violations by wi reless manufacturers) David Lang
2003-06-25  0:47         ` developers and GPL in products (Was: Re: GPL violations by wireless manufacturers) Robins Tharakan
2003-06-25  3:21           ` Brian Davids
2003-06-25 18:53 GPL violations by wireless manufacturers Andrew Miklas
     [not found] <20030628151540.A16039@mn.rr.com>
2003-06-29 21:22 ` vanstadentenbrink

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