Resolving Chitech CT-PC89E GPL Copyright Violation

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Sat, Mar 20, 2010 at 1:50 AM, Kimberly-Chitech
<sales1 at chitechgroup.com.cn> wrote:
>
> Dear Luke,
>
> Thanks for your email and the detail explanations to GPL licence. We agree
> with you to open our basic GPL source code to our customers who support us
> and treat us as business partner although we are not IBM, Apple, HP later
> not now yet.

 dear kimberley,

 these are good examples of companies to follow and emulate, and learn from.

 let us look at the linux kernel source code, and see what there is to learn.

 linux-2.6.24.2 $ find . | wc
    25412

 that means that in the linux 2.6.24.2 kernel, there are 25 thousand files.

 linux-2.6.24.2 $ find . | xargs grep "ibm.com" | wc
    1420

 that means that, of the 25,412 linux kernel source code files, a
whopping FIVE PERCENT have contributions from IBM.

 linux-2.6.24.2 $ find . | xargs grep "hp.com" | wc
    445

 and, of the 25,412 linux kernel source code files, 1.8% - nearly 2% -
have contributions from HP.

 apple is not so high: only 10 (ten) files.  but IBM and HP contribute
to nearly SEVEN PERCENT of the files in the linux kernel source code.

 this is just the linux kernel source code - i have not counted the
MOS operating system or the u-boot source code.

so the example is therefore clear: IBM and HP sell hardware, yet, how
is it that they can sell hardware _even_ if they release the linux
kernel source code?

 the reason is because the kernel source code is one area of
expertise, and the design of hardware is another.

 you DO NOT have enough expertise yet in the linux source code, as i
have been able to ascertain from reverse-engineering (which cost me
personal time and money), and we want to help correct that, as fast as
possible.

 ... but you DO have expertise in designing hardware.

 please therefore treat our advice, and the GPL with respect, and
honour its terms - just like IBM and HP honour and respect it.

 if you want to emulate these large companies, you need to follow their example.

thank you for listening.

l.