Question about GPL Software in Telekom Speedport W900V
Ralf Friedl
Ralf.Friedl at online.de
Tue Jul 24 23:14:43 CEST 2007
T-COM (Deutsche Telekom, German Telekom) sells the device 'Speedport
W900V', a DSL Router with phone/ISDN/DECT functions.
1.
This device uses a Linux-based firmware (Linux 2.6.13.1).
T-COM offers partial sources at this address:
http://www.t-com.de/dlp/eki/downloads/Speedport/Speedport%20W%20701%20V/GPL-r4264-8mb_26-tar.bz2
One problem is that this won't build as is because it contains symbolic
links to files in '/home/jpluschke/...', probably the home directory of
one of the developers, which are not included in the download.
Even if the symlinks are resolved, there are some kernel modules without
source that are present in the binary firmware which are loaded into the
kernel.
These modules are: kdsldmod usbahcicore isdn_fbox ubik2 tiatm Piglet.
Is this legal under the GPL?
2.
Especially the module isdn_fbox seems to use the file skbuff.h and the
inline-functions defined there. The module contains references to skb
funktions:
U alloc_skb
U __kfree_skb
U skb_over_panic
skb_over_panic is called from inline-functions from skbuff.h in case of
errors.
That means that they don't just include the header files, the code from
the inline funktions is part of the generated binary object file, and
the kernel include files are not LGPL.
Is this legal under the GPL?
3.
GPL section 3 states: "complete source code means ... plus the scripts
used to control compilation and installation of the executable".
This device has the firmware on an upgradable flash memory. But the
firmware on the device as sold will only accept for update a firmware
digitally signed by T-COM.
As this key is needed to compile and install a modified firmware, is the
key considered part of the source and are they violating the GPL by not
distributung the key?
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