We recently purchased a traffic shaping network device from a company called Exinda. While the device performs quite well, from looking at a firmware update image I noticed that it was based on Fedora Core. Nowhere in their documentation is it mentioned they are using GPLed software, and there is no offer to release source code. I opened a ticket with them asking for code under the GPL but was ignored.
Would this be the appropriate place be to report such a violation?
Here is some of the text from the build script included with the firmware image. The bulk of the image is GPG encrypted.
BUILD_HOST_OS="LINUX" export BUILD_HOST_OS BUILD_HOST_OS_LC="linux" export BUILD_HOST_OS_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM="LINUX_FEDORA" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_LC="linux_fedora" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION="CORE6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC="core6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL="LINUX_FEDORA_CORE6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL_LC="linux_fedora_core6"
On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 04:06:37PM -0800, John Terhune wrote:
We recently purchased a traffic shaping network device from a company called Exinda. While the device performs quite well, from looking at a firmware update image I noticed that it was based on Fedora Core. Nowhere in their documentation is it mentioned they are using GPLed software, and there is no offer to release source code. I opened a ticket with them asking for code under the GPL but was ignored.
Would this be the appropriate place be to report such a violation?
Here is some of the text from the build script included with the firmware image. The bulk of the image is GPG encrypted.
BUILD_HOST_OS="LINUX" export BUILD_HOST_OS BUILD_HOST_OS_LC="linux" export BUILD_HOST_OS_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM="LINUX_FEDORA" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_LC="linux_fedora" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION="CORE6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC="core6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL="LINUX_FEDORA_CORE6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL_LC="linux_fedora_core6"
While I am certainly not a lawyer, the above seems entirely inconclusive to me. I read that as "This was built on a Fedora Core 6 host." That doesn't mean that the image itself contains GPL code.
While it may be very likely that it does, I think you need to dig further to figure that out for sure.
josh
Ooops, looks like I copied the wrong section of the build script. Build target is much more incriminating than build host.
BUILD_TARGET_OS="LINUX" export BUILD_TARGET_OS BUILD_TARGET_OS_LC="linux" export BUILD_TARGET_OS_LC BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM="LINUX_FEDORA" export BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_LC="linux_fedora" export BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_LC BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_VERSION="CORE6" export BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_VERSION BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC="core6" export BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_FULL="LINUX_FEDORA_CORE6" export BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_FULL BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_FULL_LC="linux_fedora_core6" export BUILD_TARGET_PLATFORM_FULL_LC
John
On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 6:04 AM, Josh Boyer jwboyer@gmail.com wrote:
On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 04:06:37PM -0800, John Terhune wrote:
We recently purchased a traffic shaping network device from a company called Exinda. While the device performs quite well, from looking at a firmware update image I noticed that it was based on Fedora Core. Nowhere in their documentation is it mentioned they are using GPLed software, and there is no offer to release source code. I opened a ticket with them asking for code under the GPL but was ignored.
Would this be the appropriate place be to report such a violation?
Here is some of the text from the build script included with the firmware image. The bulk of the image is GPG encrypted.
BUILD_HOST_OS="LINUX" export BUILD_HOST_OS BUILD_HOST_OS_LC="linux" export BUILD_HOST_OS_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM="LINUX_FEDORA" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_LC="linux_fedora" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION="CORE6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC="core6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_VERSION_LC BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL="LINUX_FEDORA_CORE6" export BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL BUILD_HOST_PLATFORM_FULL_LC="linux_fedora_core6"
While I am certainly not a lawyer, the above seems entirely inconclusive to me. I read that as "This was built on a Fedora Core 6 host." That doesn't mean that the image itself contains GPL code.
While it may be very likely that it does, I think you need to dig further to figure that out for sure.
josh
On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 04:06:37PM -0800, John Terhune wrote:
We recently purchased a traffic shaping network device from a company called Exinda. While the device performs quite well, from looking at a firmware update image I noticed that it was based on Fedora Core. Nowhere in their documentation is it mentioned they are using GPLed software, and there is no offer to release source code. I opened a ticket with them asking for code under the GPL but was ignored.
John,
Red Hat Legal Affairs is investigating this. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Regards,
Richard E. Fontana Open Source Licensing and Patent Counsel Red Hat, Inc. direct: +1 978 392 2423 mobile: +1 718 344 1545 fax: +1 978 392 1001 mail: rfontana@redhat.com
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John Terhune -
Josh Boyer -
Richard Fontana