Possible GPL violation : Planet IP camera series

[Peter Roozemaal]

Loic Pefferkorn wrote:
> I bought a few days ago an IP camera from Planet, then found that
> device uses GPL softwares.
> 
> The problem is I cannot find a reference to the GPL, neither on the
> website, nor in the documentation, nor in the web applet. And no
> source code is available.
> 
> You can find here the results of my investigation :
> 
> http://www.frozenbox.com/misc:planet_gpl_violations
> 
> Am I right ? What should I do now ? gently ask to Planet to comply
> with GPL ?

What do you want to achieve? How much time and money are you willing to
spend on it?

First check: Does the camera/software come with a license that forbids
reverse-engineering? If so, check with a lawyer before posting anything
on the web or on public mailing lists. (DO IT NOW!)

Taking a look at your findings I'ld say that you have pretty convincing
evidence that Planet distributed binaries of dhcpc, net-tools, busybox
and uClinux-pppd which are under the GPL. You should have a right to
recieve the corresponding sources (paying Planet reasonable costs), if
Planet has received them under the GPL.
sash is under a BSD style license; you have no right to recieve sources
for it. (You can politely ask!)

What you should do now (if you are serious about enforcing your rights)
is building a case file of all evidence. Save packaging materials,
relevant leaflets, CD's that came with the camera and make a backup of
your findings. Also describe in detail how you created your findings, a
lawyer should be able to reproduce them.

If you want Planet to distribute sources, it's time to write them a
formal letter. Having a lawyer draft it increases impact, but it will
cost you some money. Those are your decisions.

Peter.