source code & licensing of LinuxDA

source code & licensing of LinuxDA

[Rik van Riel]

Hi,

I saw on http://www.linuxda.com/download/index.html
that you are shipping binary images of Linux, but
without the source code.  This is in violation of
the GPL, a matter which won't be taken lightly by
the hundreds of copyright holders involved.


Also http://www.linuxda.com/licensing/index.html
and http://www.linuxda.com/legal.html seem to have
licensing terms which are incompatible with the
GPL, meaning that you either have to change the
license or stop shipping Linux ...

In particular the paragraphs "SINGLE COPY LICENSE",
"OWNERSHIP OF MATERIALS" and "TERMINATION OF THIS
LICENSE" are a gross violation of the GPL.


You acquired Linux from me and hundreds of other
copyright holders under the conditions of the
General Public License (GPL).

Since I guess you'll want us to comply with any
licensing you want to impose on the parts of the
technology which are yours, I guess it's only fair
that we expect you to abide by the GPL.


Please open up your source code and change your
licensing to something compatible with the GPL.

thank you,

Rik
--
Executive summary of a recent Microsoft press release:
   "we are concerned about the GNU General Public License (GPL)"


		http://www.surriel.com/
http://www.conectiva.com/	http://distro.conectiva.com/

Re: source code & licensing of LinuxDA

[Andreas Bombe]

On Mon, Jul 23, 2001 at 08:25:07PM -0300, Rik van Riel wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I saw on http://www.linuxda.com/download/index.html
> that you are shipping binary images of Linux, but
> without the source code.  This is in violation of
> the GPL, a matter which won't be taken lightly by
> the hundreds of copyright holders involved.

I also found that last Friday.  At that point, they had a downloadable
demo for Palm IIIx without source (plus sections on the download page
for Palm Vx and source code, both with the comment "coming soon").

I asked them for source code at their only listed email
feedback@linuxda.com.  I got a pretty quick response from
support@linuxda.com that it will be coming soon and I should revisit
their web page to find out.  To that I responded with an email
explaining the situation they got into and asked to upload the source
before I would tell this list, leaving them some slack because of the
weekend.

I have still not received any email response.  On their web site, they
added a demo for Palm Vx but still no source code.

> Also http://www.linuxda.com/licensing/index.html
> and http://www.linuxda.com/legal.html seem to have
> licensing terms which are incompatible with the
> GPL, meaning that you either have to change the
> license or stop shipping Linux ...
>
> In particular the paragraphs "SINGLE COPY LICENSE",
> "OWNERSHIP OF MATERIALS" and "TERMINATION OF THIS
> LICENSE" are a gross violation of the GPL.

They have a small statement hidden under "OWNERSHIP OF MATERIALS" saying
that contained open source software is distributed under their own
respective licenses.  That's of course way too buried and a
contradiction.


Oh, and for all you conspiracy theorists out there:

"Empower Technologies Inc., an innovative company based out of Redmond,
Washington."
  -- http://www.linuxda.com/aboutlinuxda/index.html

Redmond and innovation.  Now if that's not suspicious...

-- 
Andreas E. Bombe <andreas.bombe@munich.netsurf.de>    DSA key 0x04880A44