Possible GPL violation : Planet IP camera series

[Loic Pefferkorn]

> 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.

Thanks for your answer.

I just want Planet to respect the license of open source software they are 
using, a link to software's source code and a mention of GPL is enough for 
me. But as a student my money ressources are quite limited.

All the provided softwares are :
-a win32 program to find on a LAN camera's ip (ipEditV3.1.exe, cdrom)
-a win32 program to setup / manage several cameras (Cam View, cdrom)
-an ActiveX control, which of course only works with Internet Explorer and 
Microsoft Windows (downloaded from camera when web gui is used, not obviously 
provided)

For my findings, I have not disassembled any of theses programs, concerning 
licenses, only ipEdit's setup says that disassembly is forbidden. Neither on 
the provided cdrom, nor in web gui, nor in leaflet, nor in documentation (pdf 
on cdrom), nor in Planet's website I can find a license. And no license is 
provided with firmwares I found on Planet's ftp server.

I will first write Planet an e-mail gently asking them to comply with GPL. If 
I don't have a clever answer or no answer at all after a week, I will ask 
advices to a lawyer.

I've quickly searched for a lawyer specialized in computers related licenses, 
they are quite few and expensive (I live in France). 

But I hope it's just a mistake of Planet's engineers :)

Cheers,
Loic