Deutsche Telekom W700V GPL violation

[Sebastian Gottschall]

Sascha Wüstemann schrieb:
> 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
officially the W700V is not based on any gpl sources, but inofficially i 
found out that this isnt true. the first revision of this firmware didnt 
used wireless extensions or madwifi, but the current/recent firmware does
there are other interesting parts in it as well, you just need to 
search. (see the other thread for the extracted binary link)

regards,
Sebastian Gottschall
>
>