possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Chris Abbey]

I just know I'm going to regret posting this, but I can think of
no better group to notify of this than the copyright holders, and
no better location for the majority of them then l-k.

While searching through all of the driver images on Promise Tech's
website I stumbled across their disk images for Caldera/Open Linux
and their TX2 card ( http://promise.com/support/file/ftol_12014.tgz )

This tarball contains two disk images:
-rw-r--r--    1 cabbey    1474560 Nov 19 01:29 ols31-ft.img
-rw-r--r--    1 cabbey    1474560 Nov 19 01:27 olw31-ft.img

which in turn contain binary modules from 2.4.2 and 2.4.3
(intermixed, I found some modules from 2.4.2 and some from
2.4.3, as well as a few of their rc's)

The contents of one of these images (ols31-ft.img) is as such
(ther other disk is very similar):

cabbey@chesire:/mnt > find .
.
./bin
./bin/mol.gz
./lib
./lib/modules
./lib/modules/2.4.2
./lib/modules/2.4.2/pnp
./lib/modules/2.4.2/pnp/isa-pnp.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/block
./lib/modules/2.4.2/block/DAC960.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/block/cciss.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/block/loop.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/block/cpqarray.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/cdrom
./lib/modules/2.4.2/cdrom/mcdx.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/cdrom/sbpcd.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/fs
./lib/modules/2.4.2/fs/fat.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/fs/msdos.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/fs/umsdos.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/fs/reiserfs.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/fs/vfat.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/3c501.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/3c503.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/3c505.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/3c507.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/3c509.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/3c515.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/ac3200.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/at1700.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/atp.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/de4x5.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/de600.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/de620.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/depca.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/dgrs.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/dmfe.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/e2100.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/eepro.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/eth16i.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/eepro100.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/eexpress.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/epic100.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/ewrk3.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/hp.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/hp-plus.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/hp100.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/lance.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/ne.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/ni52.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/ne2k-pci.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/ni65.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/sis900.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/olympic.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/tlan.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/smc-ultra.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/wd.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/smc-ultra32.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/yellowfin.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/net/e100.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/AM53C974.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/BusLogic.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/NCR53c406a.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/a100u2w.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/ft.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/aha152x.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/aha1542.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/aha1740.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/aic7xxx.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/atp870u.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/dtc.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/eata.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/eata_dma.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/eata_pio.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/fdomain.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/g_NCR5380.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/gdth.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/ide-scsi.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/imm.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/in2000.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/ips.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/ncr53c8xx.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/pas16.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/pci2000.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/pci2220i.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/ppa.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/psi240i.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/qlogicfas.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/qlogicfc.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/qlogicisp.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/scsi_mod.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/sd_mod.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/seagate.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/sg.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/sr_mod.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/st.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/sym53c416.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/sym53c8xx.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/t128.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/tmscsim.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/u14-34f.o.gz
./lib/modules/2.4.2/scsi/wd7000.o.gz
./sbin
./sbin/fdisk.gz
./readme.txt
./setup-ft

I pulled a few of these gzip'd modules apart and am confident
that they are exactly what they appear to be. There is no source,
license or mention of either on the image, or on their website.

http://promise.com/support/other2_eng.asp?mode=linux_download&product_id=8

The bin/mol and sbin/fdisk files are certainly executables, but I
wasn't able to execute either due dynamic library dependencies.

Note that there are a large number of images on there, and I was only
looking at a subset (most recent TX2 driver images) there may be other
examples of this. Given the incredibly high quality of those other images
I can easily believe this is a mistake on their part rather than
intentionsl. (note only half of that sentence was sardonic.)

-- 
Never make a technical decision based upon the politics of the situation.
Never make a political decision based upon technical issues.
The only place these realms meet is in the mind of the unenlightened.
			-- Geoffrey James, The Zen of Programming

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 01:43:58AM -0500, Chris Abbey wrote:
> I just know I'm going to regret posting this, but I can think of
> no better group to notify of this than the copyright holders, and
> no better location for the majority of them then l-k.
> 
> While searching through all of the driver images on Promise Tech's
> website I stumbled across their disk images for Caldera/Open Linux
> and their TX2 card ( http://promise.com/support/file/ftol_12014.tgz )
> 
> This tarball contains two disk images:
> -rw-r--r--    1 cabbey    1474560 Nov 19 01:29 ols31-ft.img
> -rw-r--r--    1 cabbey    1474560 Nov 19 01:27 olw31-ft.img
> 
> which in turn contain binary modules from 2.4.2 and 2.4.3
> (intermixed, I found some modules from 2.4.2 and some from
> 2.4.3, as well as a few of their rc's)
> 
> The contents of one of these images (ols31-ft.img) is as such
> (ther other disk is very similar):

Calm down - OpenLinux driver disks are supposed to contain the standard
modules in addition to the new ones.  You can find your sources in
/usr/src/linux.

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Chris Abbey]

Today, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> Calm down

I am calm. As I said, I didn't want to post it, but that's the
best way to get word to the copyright holders, who are the only
ones that can act on any violations.

> - OpenLinux driver disks are supposed to contain the standard
> modules in addition to the new ones.  You can find your sources in
> /usr/src/linux.

Not on that floppy you don't, nor in the download that included the
floppy image, nor in any offer contained within that disk/image, nor
on promise's website along with that image.

-- 
Never make a technical decision based upon the politics of the situation.
Never make a political decision based upon technical issues.
The only place these realms meet is in the mind of the unenlightened.
			-- Geoffrey James, The Zen of Programming

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 01:52:34AM -0500, Chris Abbey wrote:
> Today, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > Calm down
> 
> I am calm. As I said, I didn't want to post it, but that's the
> best way to get word to the copyright holders, who are the only
> ones that can act on any violations.

Blah.  First thing you'd do if you were serious would be to contact
Promise.  If they have a support person that has a little more clue
than their driver guys they'd point you to the OpenLinux kernel source
RPM and you wouldn't even have to make so much noise.

> 
> > - OpenLinux driver disks are supposed to contain the standard
> > modules in addition to the new ones.  You can find your sources in
> > /usr/src/linux.
> 
> Not on that floppy you don't, nor in the download that included the
> floppy image, nor in any offer contained within that disk/image, nor
> on promise's website along with that image.

Where the heck did you get the impression from that this is required by
the GPL?

	Christoph

--
Dont't feed the trolls.

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Eric W. Biederman]

Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org> writes:

> On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 01:52:34AM -0500, Chris Abbey wrote:
> > Today, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > > Calm down
> > 
> > I am calm. As I said, I didn't want to post it, but that's the
> > best way to get word to the copyright holders, who are the only
> > ones that can act on any violations.
> 
> Blah.  First thing you'd do if you were serious would be to contact
> Promise.  If they have a support person that has a little more clue
> than their driver guys they'd point you to the OpenLinux kernel source
> RPM and you wouldn't even have to make so much noise.
> 
> > 
> > > - OpenLinux driver disks are supposed to contain the standard
> > > modules in addition to the new ones.  You can find your sources in
> > > /usr/src/linux.
> > 
> > Not on that floppy you don't, nor in the download that included the
> > floppy image, nor in any offer contained within that disk/image, nor
> > on promise's website along with that image.
> 
> Where the heck did you get the impression from that this is required by
> the GPL?
> 
> 	Christoph
GPL section 3

  3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:

    a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
    source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
    1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

    b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three
    years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your
    cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete
    machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be
    distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
    customarily used for software interchange; or,

    c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
    to distribute corresponding source code.  (This alternative is
    allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you
    received the program in object code or executable form with such
    an offer, in accord with Subsection b above.)


Eric

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Doug Ledford]

On Sun, Apr 21, 2002 at 08:10:35AM -0600, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org> writes:
> > Where the heck did you get the impression from that this is required by
> > the GPL?
> > 
> > 	Christoph
> GPL section 3
> 
>   3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
> under Section 2) in object code or executable form under the terms of
> Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following:
> 
>     a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
>     source code, which must be distributed under the terms of Sections
>     1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,

And Cristoph's point is that Promise has already complied with this exact
section.  The disk they distribute is a driver disk for Caldera Open
Linux.  That disk format happens to require that they put the regular
kernel drivers from the standard install disk into an image and then
simply add their new driver to that image as well.  That means you already
have all the GPL required source on the image you are installing because 
all those kernel modules are bit for bit duplicates of the ones that came 
with your open linux CD.  End of problem.

-- 
  Doug Ledford <dledford@redhat.com>     919-754-3700 x44233
         Red Hat, Inc. 
         1801 Varsity Dr.
         Raleigh, NC 27606
  

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Chris Abbey]

Today, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> Blah.  First thing you'd do if you were serious would be to contact
> Promise.

As I am not the copyright holder of the material in question I
can not do that. Only the copyright holder can, at least in this
country. A good reference: http://fsf.org/licenses/gpl-violation.html

> Where the heck did you get the impression from that this is required by
> the GPL?

Section 3.

> Dont't feed the trolls.

sage advice, not sure why I am.

-- 
Never make a technical decision based upon the politics of the situation.
Never make a political decision based upon technical issues.
The only place these realms meet is in the mind of the unenlightened.
			-- Geoffrey James, The Zen of Programming

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Sean Neakums]

commence  Chris Abbey quotation:

> Today, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
>> Blah.  First thing you'd do if you were serious would be to contact
>> Promise.
>
> As I am not the copyright holder of the material in question I can
> not do that. Only the copyright holder can, at least in this
> country.

You cannot ENFORCE the license, but you could have certainly sent them
a polite message, drawing their attention to the matter.  It could
have been a simple mistake, but you don't know, because you decided to
"send a precise report to the copyright holders" by sending a message
to a widely-read mailing list.  This is very different to sending a
message to the FSF, who will typically begin by sending a polite
e-mail.

-- 
 /////////////////  |                  | The spark of a pin
<sneakums@zork.net> |  (require 'gnu)  | dropping, falling feather-like.
 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  |                  | There is too much noise.

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Pavel Machek]

Hi!

> > > - OpenLinux driver disks are supposed to contain the standard
> > > modules in addition to the new ones.  You can find your sources in
> > > /usr/src/linux.
> > 
> > Not on that floppy you don't, nor in the download that included the
> > floppy image, nor in any offer contained within that disk/image, nor
> > on promise's website along with that image.
> 
> Where the heck did you get the impression from that this is required by
> the GPL?

It is required by GPL. Go read it.

OTOH /README on that floppy pointing to GPL and to the sources would
be adequate.

You may want to contact FSF, and they'll provide advice to Promise.
									Pavel
-- 
Philips Velo 1: 1"x4"x8", 300gram, 60, 12MB, 40bogomips, linux, mutt,
details at http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/velo/index.html.

Re: possible GPL violation involving linux kernel code

[Sean Neakums]

Chris,

You have omitted documentation of your attempt(s) to contact Promise
asking them to fix the problem, and their response(s).  Please supply
same.

Regards,

        Sean

-- 
 /////////////////  |                  | The spark of a pin
<sneakums@zork.net> |  (require 'gnu)  | dropping, falling feather-like.
 \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  |                  | There is too much noise.