[Arm-netbook] Allwinner git / GPL stalemate situation

[Benjamin Henrion]

On Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 6:49 PM, Philip Hands <phil at hands.com> wrote:
> Vladimir Pantelic <vladoman at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> cnxsoft wrote:
>>> On 01/06/2012 18:03, Tsvetan Usunov, OLIMEX LTD wrote:
>>>> Olimex will be granted to access to Allwinner development git repositories
>>>> if we sign NDA which do not allow us to share the sources with 3rd parties.
>>>>
>>>> Now we are in stalemate situation if we want to develop the Linux support
>>>> for A10-A13-OLinuXino we have to use the information on these repositories
>>>> as the other documentation is incomplete, we spoted lot of errors on it (but
>>>> we have been warned that there are errors anyway) and only these sources
>>>> guarantee that we will not lose time while development, in other hand
>>>> signing this NDA will make us GPL violator as we will not be able to release
>>>> the BSP sources.
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas? We are so smallish customer that we can't influence
>>>> Allwinner/Wits on GPL at all. If we do not sign, they just do not allow us
>>>> access and we are free to go somewhere else :-)
>>>>
>>>> Tsvetan
>>> Interesting. So if i understand correctly, they ask you to sign a
>>> legally binding document asking you to do something against the law.
>>
>> it is not against the law. if you sign that NDA, you cannot release the
>> code under the GPL, thus you cannot release a product. Being able to release
>> a product is not mandated by any law...
>
> Imposing extra conditions on the distribution of a GPLed work (which I
> think a tweaked Linux kernel is very likely to be) is a violation of the
> terms of the GPL.
>
> If they're doing that, then they should lose their right to distribute
> Linux, and since GPLv2 doesn't actually have defined procedure for
> recovering that right, many argue that that loss of rights would be
> effectively permanent.
>
> The only trouble is that someone needs to sue them over it.
>
> Perhaps the right thing to do is get hold of a copy of the kernel
> complied from these sources, and then demand a copy of the code.
>
> When they tell you where to go, point out that you'll be reporting them
> to the Free Software Conservancy, who just welcomed several Linux
> developers to their fold, and so who probably have all they need for an
> enforcement action in this case:
>
>  http://sfconservancy.org/news/2012/may/29/compliance/
>
> The problem with NDAs is that if you don't sign, and so don't get the
> code, then no violation occurred.  If you do sign, and get the code, a
> GPL violation just happened, but a court is likely to take your
> signature on the DNA much more seriously than the terms of some license
> that may or may not apply to the code in question, so going ahead and
> publishing it is not a very good idea.

Not publishing, but pressuring Allwinner to get the case resolved.

-- 
Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion at ffii.org>
FFII Brussels - +32-484-566109 - +32-2-3500762
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