T-Mobile doesn't provide the source of web'n'walk-Box Linux Driver

Matthias Bock bockmatthias at gmx.net
Mon Feb 15 22:52:50 CET 2010


Hello,

T-Mobile is selling different USB-UMTS-Modems, they call
"web'n'walk-Boxes". A Linux Driver called "HWActivator"
is provided in the internal memory of the device and on
the driver CD-ROM.

For some reasons this driver doesn't work on my computer,
so I wanted to have a look at the source code.
A file named "copying" is present in the driver's
directory/zip-archive, containing the GNU GPL v2 License Text.
I concluded, the source code would be available on
T-Mobile's web site, but it is not, and the support
center refuses to provide it.
They argue, that the program is not licensed under the GPL.

In fact, I can not find a statement explicitely saying
something like "HWActivator is licensed under the
GNU GPL license, which you can find in the file copying".
As far as I can judge, HWActivator is nevertheless obviously
GPL'ed (maybe because it is derived from other GPL'ed software?).

What's the legal situation ?
Do I have the right to insist on getting the source code ?

Regards, Mat





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