GPL Violation Hammer Myshare N1200?

[19979707]

Hello guys!

The Hammer Myshare N1200 is another linux based NAS....but unlike 
several other vendors Hammer Storage is not providing the GPL sources 
for the box.

I know that it is running a 2.6.12.16 linux kernel, uses busybox and 
samba.....three things common to most linux based NAS devices.

I already mailed a little with the tech support....but the guys there 
are not helpful at all.
You can read the complete mail-conversation so far below the line under 
this text.

the firmware itself can be downloaded from here:
http://www.hammer-storage.com/downloads/software_updates/N1200_FW_V1-3-3.zip

it unfortunately is encrypted, so i was not able to look at the rootfs 
directly.

Jim Buzbee shows a way to access the rootfs via the webserver here:
http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30056/75/1/5/

and some guys already managed it to access the boxes via telnet as root.


so....it does not seem that this guys want to make the source available 
somehow...what do you guys think what should be done?

-- markus


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for your quick answer.

Nearly every other vendor that sells a NAS based on the marvell orion 
design provides GPL source packages.

And marvell itself works on porting the latest linux kernel to the 
marvell orion design.

http://nas-central.org/ALL_COMMUNITIES/Collection_of_NAS-Hacking_communities.html#Marvell%20Orion%201%20based%20NAS%20devices 


I just wanted to mention that in case you think that the NDA (that you 
definitely had to sign) with Marvell is a problem.

So far linux was ported to the other boards by marvell itself....i 
suppose they also provided you with the root-filesystem and the 
codesourcery toolchain 2005q3 (both freely available) where you guys 
used FreeNAS as a base for the webinterface.

there should be no question if you should or if you should not make it 
available.

-- mindbender


Chinue Vang wrote:
> mindbender,
>
> Our engineers are researching to see if they want to release the GPL 
> source code, however not anytime soon. I have no timeline.
>
> Regards,
> Chinue Vang
> Hammer Tech Support
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 19979707 [mailto:mindbender at gmx.at] Sent: Friday, January 18, 
> 2008 3:53 AM
> To: Chinue Vang; Hammer Storage Support
> Subject: Re: GPL-sources for the Hammer Myshare
>
> Ok this clearly is no acceptable answer.
>
> You have to provide the GPL source code. i know that several others 
> are trying to get it as well (just search "hammer myshare gpl" in 
> google) so there has to be a reason why you are not providing it.
>
> I am not aware of that fact if you know what GPL actually means. it 
> means that if you use (or modify and use) any GPL licenced software 
> then you have to provide the source code as well...and not just only 
> compile it for firmwares and use it....that is a violation of the GPL
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License
>
> i link here version 2 again...because thats the version the linux 
> kernel is licenced:
> http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
>
> actually the most important thing we want to have are the modified 
> linux kernel sources.
>
> So......its the last thing i want to do, i really want to avoid it, 
> but if you do not come up with a solution then i might have to submit 
> this issue to http://gpl-violations.org
>
> but please notice that i want to avoid this if possible!
>
> best regards
> -- mindbender
>
> <mailto:support at hammer-storage.com> 
>
>
> Chinue Vang wrote: 
>> mindbender,
>>
>> At this time it's not available.
>> Regards,
>> Chinue Vang
>> Hammer Tech Support
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: 19979707 [mailto:mindbender at gmx.at] Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 
>> 2007 8:05 PM
>> To: Hammer Storage Support
>> Subject: GPL-sources for the Hammer Myshare
>>
>> Hello!
>>
>> I know from the following two articles that the Hammer Myshare is 
>> running linux on a arm926ej-s CPU.
>> http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/AT7270490723.html
>> http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30056/75/
>>
>> I searched on your page but i was not able to find the GPL-sources 
>> that you need to provide for the box.
>>
>> Please make them available somehow....or tell me how to get it.
>>
>> Greetings!
>>
>> mindbender 
>>
>> ______________________________________________________________________