Deutsche Telekom W700V GPL violation

[Sascha Wüstemann]

Sebastian Gottschall wrote:
> Hello
> 
> While checking the latest firmware release of the Deutsche Telekom W700V 
> router i found a serious gpl violation in the firmware
> 
> the firmware named fw-sp-w700v-ipone-b-3_22_000.bin. Even if this 
> firmware is not based on linux, the vendor used several gpl licensed 
> parts of linux projects and from the linux kernel core itself
> to build his firmware. there is a tool around named SP700EX.exe which 
> can be used for extracting the image
> 
> i found the following text strings within the extracted firmware binary:
> 
> [ipriv]:    Usage: iwpriv interface [private-command [private-arguments]]
>                interface [roam {on|off}]
>                  interface [port {ad-hoc|managed|N}]
>  Not yet implemented...
> The command %s need exactly %d argument...
> Interface doesn't accept private ioctl...
>  %s (%X): %s
>    Invalid command : %s
>   Invalid private ioctl definition for
> (and others)
> 
> which shows that the linux wireless tools are compiled in
> additionally the vendor ported madwifi to his own operating system and 
> included the wireless extension interface which is part of the linux 
> kernel.
> this can be proved with other text patterns too
> since the firmware uses slot of linux based drivers (non gpl drivers 
> like madwifi and others), its also very likelly that other parts of the 
> linux kernel are stolen
> to build up this non gpl'ed operating system
> 
> for sure there is no sourcecode provided for anything
> 
> 
> Sebastian Gottschall
> 
> 

Addition:

I have checked that there is a GNU GPL license download link for the 
Speedport W 900V, see

http://hilfe.telekom.de/hsp/cms/content/HSP/de/3388/theme-2000178/theme-2001628/theme-16096128

while the Speedport W 700V has not

http://hilfe.telekom.de/hsp/cms/content/HSP/de/3388/theme-2000178/theme-2001628/theme-6512161

Looks like the Telekom is conscious about the GPL license but does not 
strive for it very much.  Note that the Speedport W 900V is a newer than 
the W 700V, too. Very unsatisfactory is that you don't find the GPL 
license shipped with the W 700V when using the search function at this 
site, which means that you can't use it.

Greetings,
Sascha