Deutsche Telekom W700V GPL violation

[ard]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 01:05:19PM +0200, Felix Fietkau wrote:
> ard wrote:
>> I haven't done anything more than string -a the binary :-).
>> However, the string -a leads me to believe that specific
>> mips/amazon pci initialisation code is used, which probably is
>> derived from a standard linux pci initialisation code , and
>> therefore should be GPL. That alone justifies calling it a
>> violation, although I think that it needs more technical
>> disection/proof than just strings -a. (Like: the assembly code
>> will probably contain enough hints to certain loops and such).
> The strings that I pasted were not from the amazon arch pci code, they 
> were from drivers/pci/pci.c

Ah, but the message strings that I found in that binary were also
the strings I found in the openwrt mips/amazone repository.

> Sure, if you want to follow up on this, then you should look at the  
> assembly code. But the chances of those specific strings appearing in the 
> binary without any of the code around them are very close to zero.

I think so too, but just text strings in a binary is for me like quote
rights. If the assembly also reveals the same source, then it is
definitive a derivative.

But I think that work is only necessary if T-online (was it?)
refuses to cooperate.

The biggest question is to cooperate with whom, since probably
none of us is author of that specific piece of code.

Regards,
Ard van Breemen