Re: Possible GPL Violation

[Carlos Silva <r3pek@r3pek.homelinux.org>]

On Mon, 2005-05-30 at 15:50 +0200, Måns Rullgård wrote:
> Carlos Silva <r3pek@r3pek.homelinux.org> writes:
> 
> > Hi,
> > the company that i work for is going to buy a pair of Panda
> > Gatedefenders 8200 that are linux based. To start, they never told us or
> > mention on their site (as far as i searched) the use of linux in their
> > product. Another thing is that they don't give us root access nor any
> > other type of local access to the box besides the http page the
> > appliance have to be managed.
> 
> There's no requirement to give you full access to the machine.  If you
> don't like that, don't buy it.
I know this :)

> 
> > The thing is that i asked for the kernel source they use in the
> > system and they said they can't give it since they have some
> > proprietary code in it, as far as i understood.
> 
> If they use some modules of their own writing, the general agreement
> seems to be that they don't need to release the source code to those.
> They should still give you the kernel source they used, along with any
> patches they may have applied.
I know this too. The thing is that they don't give me anything. They
only sell me the appliance, nothing more. :(

> 
> > I really don't know the proper way to report a GPL violation so i
> > thought this was a good place.  If there is any question please feel
> > free to ask, i'll do my best to answer it.
> 
> I'm having some problems myself with an STB manufacturer (Amino).  The
> STB is running a Busybox/Montavista Linux of some kind, and I need to
> make some changes.  To do this, they tell me I need the SDK, which is
> only available under NDA, and then only after purchasing a support
> contract for an ungodly number of dollars.  Somehow, I get the feeling
> they are on thin ice here.
> 
Panda uses debian in this appliance ;)