Problems with KiSS (dvd player) firmware

[Harald Welte]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2005 at 09:12:57PM +0100, Kees Bakker wrote:

> * there is only one GPL.zip for all players, even though the players
>   have different configurations. (with or without network, with or
>   without harddisk, etc)

this could be compliant, if the different configurations were actually
present in the GPL.zip file

> * the GPL.zip has not been updated in a long while. It may even be
>   that they have put GPL.zip only there once.

that is problematic.  They need to publish the complete corresponding
source code for each and every firmware version they publish.  There is
no discussion about this, and I have successfully inforced this in the
past.

> * this GPL.zip does not include any of the config files.

Then it cannot be 'complete corresponding source code' accordign to the
GPL wording.
 
> * the source code of uClinux in GPL.zip is NOT the source code used
>   to build the firmware for DP-558. I don't know about other players,
>   but I would be surprised if GPL.zip does match any firmware ever
>   shipped.
>   I only investigated a small portion of the uClinux kernel. Using
>   strings on the binary and looking at the source shipped by KiSS I
>   have to conclude that the two do not match.

Can write up your findings?  Just a small text document which particular
sections you have compared, and why they cannot correspond to each
other?  This is very important...

> * the firmware for my player (DP-558) uses mke2fs. I think this is
>   GPL software too, but I'm not sure. In any case, this software is
>   not included in GPL.zip

*sigh*.  it's part of e2fsprogs, which is licensed under GPL.

> Meanwhile I have sent them an email and asked them whether they want
> to update GPL.zip. Unfortunately they follow the tactic of delay and
> confusion. So far they haven't even come close to an answer.

Just a quick note:  emails tend to get lost.  From my experience it
helps to write real paper letters, directed to 'CEO' or 'board of
directors'.

> Any comments?

I don't think that I hold any copyright on software contained in their
devices.  So far, I personally can only act if netfilter/iptables,
msdosfs and/or initrd are used.

For everything else, I suggest writing a detailed documentation about
yoru findings, and sending that documentation to all respective
copyright holders.  If you don't want to locate the copyright holders
yourself, I could help you out.

Cheers,
	Harald

-- 
- Harald Welte <laforge at netfilter.org>                 http://netfilter.org/
============================================================================
  "Fragmentation is like classful addressing -- an interesting early
   architectural error that shows how much experimentation was going
   on while IP was being designed."                    -- Paul Vixie
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