Linksys on-going violation of the GPL

[Ard van Breemen]

Hello,
On Thu, Sep 14, 2006 at 09:05:25PM +0000, Mr Smith wrote:
> I have a Linksys WRT54G v2.0.  I went to upgrade it and found that the 
> Linksys firmware download page for this model has "GPL code" grayed out.  
> The web page explains that "grayed out options are unavailable" which to me 
> is a clear indication that Linksys is sending the message that the firmware 
> does not contain GPL or LGPL covered code.  This surprised me since it was 
> my understanding this model uses Linux.  So, I download the update which is 
> a ZIP archive.
If I click GPL code center on the left, I get all possible source
code and SDK packages for al WRT versions that contain Linux
(instead of VX(doesnt)WORKS)
I can imagine that they should refer to the GPL code center on
the left side. But to my feeling they have done enough to comply:
It's easy accesible, and on the firmware download page it is
stated that it contains GPL'd software. Anyone that wants this
source code (to improve it) is probably bright enough to look at
the left side (no offense intended).

On a side note: there are companies which really respect the GPL.
Siemens f.i. sells a DECT SIP gateway which uses libosip. Just
for that 10% of the user manual contains the LGPL, and a short
description on how people can change that part. (Unfortunately the
other parts are still binary :-(, but I have yet to see an open
sourced DECT implementation)
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