rdesktop and MochaSoft

[Peter Honeder]

Peter Honeder schrieb:
> Vinz Focker wrote:
>> Regarding rdesktop: There is another quite expensive ($11.99)  iPhone
>> rdp client in the App store which is only available in the US App
>> store and available since beginning of August and seems to sell
>> extremely well (judging from the 270+ reviews in the App Store and the
>> 5-star rating !)
>> I just got the strings from the binary from a NY friend. Guess what
>> ... rdesktop again.
>> It even has the "rdesktop" strings inside:
>>   .rdesktop
>>   .rdesktop/cache
>>   %s/.rdesktop/%s
> 
> thats really bold, did anyone already contact the company? I wrote them 
> an email some minutes ago.
> 

this discussion has been quite silent for some weeks now but I can 
provide you some more updated details which should be interesting.

First of all I have successfully received a free (not even postage) copy 
of the full source code of the WinAdmin RDP client. At the time where I 
have received the copy, the developer *maybe* has fulfilled the GPL but 
has definately broken the NDA with Apple regarding the SDK.

This brings me to my second point: Apple updated its NDA to exclude 
released SDK versions, which brings the developer of WinAdmin to a 
better position as he sends out the source code and will not have any 
troubles regarding Apple.

My question now (refering to the *maybe* from above), which I am unable 
to solve, is:
does the GPL in the case of rdesktop forbid the development of 
applications for the iPhone because a development agreement with Apple 
has to be established before someone can on his own successfully build 
and run source code on the device itself?

how does this compare to the fact the Windows users have to buy Windows 
before they can run GPLed applications on their PC? is this the same?

how does it compare to GPL applications built for special or expensive 
hardware, is it not the same to buy special hardware or operating 
systems before beeing able to run a certain GPLed application?

Best regards,
Peter