[Arm-netbook] wits-tech EVB schematics

[Philip Hands]

lkcl luke <luke.leighton at gmail.com> writes:

> (bcc'ing eva of allwinner)
>
> On Mon, May 28, 2012 at 1:16 AM, Henrik Nordström
> <henrik at henriknordstrom.net> wrote:
>> mån 2012-05-28 klockan 00:30 +0800 skrev Tom Cubie:
>>
>>
>>> i don't think allwinner will do that. They just want to avoid
>>> responsibilities by not releasing the
>>> source code. And even releasing is not officially and publicly, it's
>>> "leaked".
>>
>> "leaked" is the wrong word. Some other stuff in there was leaked but not
>> the A10 kernel sources. Those were released as per license requirements.
>>
>> What is troublesome is that most of the allwinner source files are
>> missing the GPL license header and instead have Allwinner/Softwinner/...
>> restricted copyright "All rights reserved" or no copyright at all.
>> Without a clear official statement we have to assume these sources are
>> not licensed for use in the GPL licensed Linux kernel and that the
>> resulting combined work from building the kernel may be in violation of
>> the GPL and not licensed for redistribution in any form.
>
>  and, worse than that, each and every person in the distribution chain
> - including millions of end-users - must, strictly speaking - ask
> PERMISSION of AllwinnerTech even before using the device!  why?
> because there is no license, and as henrik points out "All rights
> reserved" means "you cannot do anything without our permission".
>
>  so, not only the OEMs, the factories, the warehouses, the sales
> people, but also the end-users, ALL OF THEM - millions of people -
> MUST phone up Allwinner Tech and say "please can i sell this device,
> please can i switch on this device, please can i play this game,
> please can i watch this video, please can i lend it to my friend,
> please can my daughter use it".

I think you're seriously overstating the case here.

I doubt that there are many courts on the planet that would allow a
copyright holder to sue their customers for using a product that was
legitimately obtained from them by the customer, where the customer was
using it as intended.

Also:  http://cr.yp.to/softwarelaw.html

Assuming that AllwinnerTech are actually the copyright holders (as is
implied by your assertion that they would be the people to contact) why
would they start suing their customers?

Of course, if the issue that you're getting at is that AllwinnerTech
don't actually have the right to distribute things they're distributing,
that's another matter entirely, and perhaps does put them and all those
downstream at risk from the actual copyright holders.

Cheers, Phil.
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