GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[Jo Shields]

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Hi,

I've discovered a GPL violation by Taiwanese TV card manufacturer Compro
Technology.

On their site, they are offering a "driver" for Mandriva
Linux 2007.1, in the form of an 18 meg "linux.rpm"[1,2,3,4]. This
"driver" is, in fact, an entire kernel image (from snd-emu10k1.ko to
libata.ko, with everything in between), generated from Mandriva's kernel
source package, with local modifications to at least two files (major
file size gap between Compro and Mandriva kernels in tuner.ko and
cx88xx.ko).

Their "driver" is being offered in binary-only form, without any
accompanying license, and I have received no replies to a formal request
for source after 2 (Taiwanese) working days. Obviously, this violates
several GPL clauses, and infringes on the rights of every kernel
developer with code in 2.6.17.

It is also the opinion of a LinuxTV developer with whom I've been
discussing the matter that their modified drivers appear to contain
large un-redistributable portions of code from a chip vendor's
proprietary SDK, but we obviously can't adequately check this with
only .ko files to work with.

They appear to be offering a similar "driver" for Fedora Core 6, which
is non-functional, presumably due to a failed upload (cpio fails to
extract the rpm)[4,5].

I'm not 100% certain what my next step should be, so I decided this was
the best place to give a public airing. One suggestion I've had
suggested is to file a DMCA takedown notice with their (US-based) ISP,
but I've no idea whether it's the right stage to do something like that,
nor do I have any claim to any code contained in the kernel. At any
rate, I wanted to make the kernel developers informed of this discovery.

I'm not on this mailing list, so a CC: would be appreciated.

--Jo Shields


[1] http://www.comprousa.com/downloadfiles/linux.rpm
[2] http://www.comprousa.com/en/download/sseries.html
[3] http://www.comprousa.com/en/download/tseries.html
[4] http://www.comprousa.com/en/download/xseries.html
[5] http://www.comprousa.com/downloadfiles/kernel-2618prep-3i386.rpm


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Re: GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[FD Cami]

(adding gpl-violations.org in CC)

--
fdc


On Fri, 16 May 2008 23:00:12 +0100
Jo Shields <directhex@apebox.org> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I've discovered a GPL violation by Taiwanese TV card manufacturer Compro
> Technology.
> 
> On their site, they are offering a "driver" for Mandriva
> Linux 2007.1, in the form of an 18 meg "linux.rpm"[1,2,3,4]. This
> "driver" is, in fact, an entire kernel image (from snd-emu10k1.ko to
> libata.ko, with everything in between), generated from Mandriva's kernel
> source package, with local modifications to at least two files (major
> file size gap between Compro and Mandriva kernels in tuner.ko and
> cx88xx.ko).
> 
> Their "driver" is being offered in binary-only form, without any
> accompanying license, and I have received no replies to a formal request
> for source after 2 (Taiwanese) working days. Obviously, this violates
> several GPL clauses, and infringes on the rights of every kernel
> developer with code in 2.6.17.
> 
> It is also the opinion of a LinuxTV developer with whom I've been
> discussing the matter that their modified drivers appear to contain
> large un-redistributable portions of code from a chip vendor's
> proprietary SDK, but we obviously can't adequately check this with
> only .ko files to work with.
> 
> They appear to be offering a similar "driver" for Fedora Core 6, which
> is non-functional, presumably due to a failed upload (cpio fails to
> extract the rpm)[4,5].
> 
> I'm not 100% certain what my next step should be, so I decided this was
> the best place to give a public airing. One suggestion I've had
> suggested is to file a DMCA takedown notice with their (US-based) ISP,
> but I've no idea whether it's the right stage to do something like that,
> nor do I have any claim to any code contained in the kernel. At any
> rate, I wanted to make the kernel developers informed of this discovery.
> 
> I'm not on this mailing list, so a CC: would be appreciated.
> 
> --Jo Shields
> 
> 
> [1] http://www.comprousa.com/downloadfiles/linux.rpm
> [2] http://www.comprousa.com/en/download/sseries.html
> [3] http://www.comprousa.com/en/download/tseries.html
> [4] http://www.comprousa.com/en/download/xseries.html
> [5] http://www.comprousa.com/downloadfiles/kernel-2618prep-3i386.rpm
> 

Re: GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[Jo Shields]

On Sat, 2008-05-17 at 00:32 +0200, FD Cami wrote:
> (adding gpl-violations.org in CC)

The infringing drivers have been removed from Compro's website, and
replaced with the following message:

"We are in the process of adhering to the GNU General Public License
rules and we expect to have the drivers ready by Q3 2008."

Crisis over, then.

--Jo Shields

Re: GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[David Newall]

Jo Shields wrote:
> The infringing drivers have been removed from Compro's website, and
> replaced with the following message:

I'd like to know how you achieved that result.  Netcomm, an Australian
manufacturer of modems, use Linux in a number of their ADSL products,
for example their NB5 range but I suppose, also, all of their modern
products.  They provide no acknowledgement on the box, nor in the
documentation, nor on their web.  I've exchanged emails with David
Stewart <davids@netcomm.com.au>, their Managing Director, in which I
explained the legal requirements, and also pointed out some high profile
companies that had been sued over their violations.  He certainly
understood the situation and promised to have the box and documentation
modified appropriately, but that was a year ago and nothing has been
done.  What can be done?

Re: GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[Jo Shields]

On Fri, 2008-05-30 at 13:19 +0930, David Newall wrote:
> Jo Shields wrote:
> > The infringing drivers have been removed from Compro's website, and
> > replaced with the following message:
> 
> I'd like to know how you achieved that result.  Netcomm, an Australian
> manufacturer of modems, use Linux in a number of their ADSL products,
> for example their NB5 range but I suppose, also, all of their modern
> products.  They provide no acknowledgement on the box, nor in the
> documentation, nor on their web.  I've exchanged emails with David
> Stewart <davids@netcomm.com.au>, their Managing Director, in which I
> explained the legal requirements, and also pointed out some high profile
> companies that had been sued over their violations.  He certainly
> understood the situation and promised to have the box and documentation
> modified appropriately, but that was a year ago and nothing has been
> done.  What can be done?

It sounds like I got off lightly - I simply contacted them via their
support email address (to which I've still received no reply), then
followed up a few days later by going to the tech press in an effort to
embarrass them into action. An associate also bought a card to determine
whether their infringing kernel image is on the driver CD as well as the
website, but the CD hasn't been looked at yet. I suppose it doesn't make
much difference now, and given they've publicly acknowledged the problem
I don't feel like chasing them over the CD issue (if it is indeed an
issue)

Re: GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[Bernd Petrovitsch]

On Don, 2008-05-29 at 14:21 +0100, Jo Shields wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-05-17 at 00:32 +0200, FD Cami wrote:
> > (adding gpl-violations.org in CC)
> 
> The infringing drivers have been removed from Compro's website, and
> replaced with the following message:
> 
> "We are in the process of adhering to the GNU General Public License
> rules and we expect to have the drivers ready by Q3 2008."
> 
> Crisis over, then.

If they really do it then - in 5 months or so.
And what if the think that everyone else had forgotten it?

	Bernd
-- 
Firmix Software GmbH                   http://www.firmix.at/
mobil: +43 664 4416156                 fax: +43 1 7890849-55
          Embedded Linux Development and Services

Re: GPL Violation: Compro Technology Inc, 2.6.17 modified binary-only kernel distribution

[Alexandre Oliva]

On May 30, 2008, Bernd Petrovitsch <bernd@firmix.at> wrote:

> On Don, 2008-05-29 at 14:21 +0100, Jo Shields wrote:
>> On Sat, 2008-05-17 at 00:32 +0200, FD Cami wrote:

>> "We are in the process of adhering to the GNU General Public License
>> rules and we expect to have the drivers ready by Q3 2008."

>> Crisis over, then.

> If they really do it then - in 5 months or so.

Hey, it takes time to locate all the thousands of copyright holders
and request their license to be reinstated after the automatic
termination in GPLv2! :-)

-- 
Alexandre Oliva         http://www.lsd.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/
Free Software Evangelist  oliva@{lsd.ic.unicamp.br, gnu.org}
FSFLA Board Member       ¡Sé Libre! => http://www.fsfla.org/
Red Hat Compiler Engineer   aoliva@{redhat.com, gcc.gnu.org}