Interead.com Ltd (AKA Coolreaders) violates GPL

Alexander Kerner alexander.kerner at googlemail.com
Fri Feb 12 12:16:15 CET 2010


Hi all,

Interead.com Ltd (www.interead.co.uk, www.coolreaders.com) is
violating the GPL. They sell the Cool-er ebook device with linux based
firmware. Also there is a firmware update available on their web site.
I've downloaded the update and found some GPL based software inside,
thereafter I've sent them an email (to support at coolreaders.com) asking
for sources, but they do not answer. After a week of silence I've
tried asking them one more time, but also without success.

The update file is available under
http://www.coolreaders.com/downloads/fw/COOLER-vfat-eb600em-1229.zip
That zip file contains among other things following GPL-licensed software:
1. files/eb600em/u-boot.* - Uboot
2. files/uImage-* - Linux kernel
3. files/eb600em/fs.tgz (contains a rootfs which is being installed
into the device)
    In the fs.tgz you can find busybox and probably other GPL-licensed
software. There is also a file lib/libfb.so, which contains FBReader
(www.fbreader.org, released under GPL) along with my modifications
which are distributed under GPL as well.

Is it possible to enforce releasing the corresponding sources?

Best regards,
Alexander Kerner





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