GPL violation of General Plus ?

[Henrik Nordström]

tor 2011-05-05 klockan 23:14 +0800 skrev Macpaul Lin:

> 
> I've found that a product like media player used on vehicle looks like
> Linux based solution.
> And I also found the the SOC is come from General
> Plus. http://www.generalplus.com/
> They've produce SoC included,¨

You need to talk to the media player producer regarding access to source
code. Even if GeneralPlus produces the SoC driving the media player and
perhaps also a large part of the software it's the responsibility of the
media player producer and/or their resellers to comply with GPL in their
sale of the device if the device includes GPL licensed software.

A quick research seems to indicate that many devices using these SoC
chips runs eCos, not Linux. eCos license is based on GPL these days but
with an exceptions that weakens the copyleft aspect a bit to limit the
scope of GPL in eCos based firmware to only eCos itself and not
applications. Additionally eCos 1.3.1 and earlier MAY have been licensed
under other terms.

To continue this discussion it would help if you listed specific devices
and analysis of their firmware if available rather than the components
they are built from.

Regards
Henrik