[Arm-netbook] Allwinner's LGPL violation

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 9:00 AM, David Lanzendörfer
<david.lanzendoerfer at o2s.ch> wrote:
> Hi
>> ... you get the point? :)
> Yes.

 ok, great!

>>  sorry, again, who is "we"?  what is the context, what is the software
>> being distributed, where is it being distributed from - none of this
>> has been mentioned so it is very difficult to follow what you are
>> saying.
> We in this context mean 郑杰文, Ben, Kevin and I (and all the other engineers and
> managers from Allwinner)

 ah ha! :)

> * Since I work with Allwinner (allthough I can not live in Zhuhai yet)
> * Since I was on a job interview there and I just wait for my work permit for
>         China so that I can work over there for them.
>
> So with "we" I actually mean pretty much everyone from Allwinner,
> so you can say "we" means in this context Allwinner or maybe you
> understand their Chinese name? -> 全志科技

 not me, but others reading this may.

>>  to which wrapper are you referring?  again, i apologise for having to
>> point this out but there is no context here.
> We are writing an open c library (named wrapper) right now which will fix the
> LGPL violations in a formal way... Just until we can go on in our plan.

 *thinks*.... ok.  my advice here - i appreciate you're not
specifically asking for my advice - but if you _were_ i would strongly
suggest that you contact the Software Freedom Law Centre for advice,
here, on whether this is an acceptable approach.  eben is the right
person to ask for initially, he's very approachable.

 as it stands the early release of the binary (with the re-wrapped
functions) looks remarkably similar to the illegal attempt made by
some criminals in 1996 to pass off the entire samba source code as
their own Copyright Work (sale price $USD 50,000).

 so i feel that you *really* need someone whom you can trust to
outline the *entire* plan - in confidence - who is also in a position
to advise - properly - on the legal ramifications of what you're
doing.  the person at the top of the list whom i can think of who fits
that criteria is eben moglen, although he may have people he knows who
are in shenzen that he can recommend.

> Since there are many internal decisions to make before we can publish
> any more code in our repository.

 david, this is important: don't for goodness sake distribute *any*
binaries - *at all* - until you have consulted proper legal advice.
you don't want a situation where (even by trying LGPL wrapping) it
turns out that Allwinner is *still* in violation of the GPL, forcing
them to cease and desist from distributing the wrapper *as well*.


> Some of the managers there were already enough pissed of what they
> actually were asked to do when I posted to them the Chinese version
> of the GPL and they finally understood the content of the license:
> https://github.com/allwinner-zh/media-codec/blob/master/LGPL_V2.1_Chinese

 well i have to say what the hell??  where did they get the impression
from that there's no license *at all* on software?  if they didn't
find one they should have gone *looking* for one!  i'm kinda shocked
that you're telling me that you were the *first person* to ever walk
them through the GPL license!


> Since many of them didn't have a clue what GPLing actually meant.
> Now we are in an internal process of resolving differences.
> Some of them are still at the Microsoft-state of "everything needs to be
> proprietary"

 yes.  tom cubie's former manager was one of them.  i _have_ pointed
out repeatedly to eva that allwinner sells hardware, not software, and
that the process of selling that hardware should be made as easy as
possible.  if the lack of understanding of the *existence* of software
licenses is as endemic as you say then it explains a lot.

>>  we have, so far, established that you are planning to work for
>> allwinner, pending a visa.  other than that, it is still yet to be
>> established who is creating wrappers (you, allwinner, or a separate
>> group, and whether you are working with that separate group), what VP6
>> is, what software is being distributed (and by whom: you, allwinner,
>> or a separate group, and whether you are working for that separate
>> group), and much more.
> I'm referring to this article:
> http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/26/allwinners-new-media-codec-library-cedarx-may-infringe-on-open-source-licenses-and-copyrtights/
> At Allwinner (allthough I do not have a visa I'm working for them already)

 ok great!

> we decided that a wrapper which separates the GPLed libraries from ours would
> be the only chance to clean up the license mess.

 you really really need to check that that's _actually_ the case.  if
you're not able to get through to eben or his team (by phone or email)
there are likely to be people at fsfe who likely would help in some
capacity to give you some indication of whether the approach is
legitimate or not.

 for "ultimate safety" however, it's Allwinner (the company) that has
to engage the services of some legal counsel, whom they must consult
for a "Legal Opinion".  two things about that: (a) regardless of what
they say you HAVE to follow that "Legal Opinion" and then (b) the
company is, *if* it follows that advice, indemnified by the Lawyer's
insurance.  i.e. if the Lawyers get it wrong, Allwinner would be able
to sue them.

 pursuing that path would however result in huge delays: you'd be
effectively paralysed from taking any action until the legal opinion
came through, so my advice would be to work with the SFLC or FSFE
*first*, get things "mostly resolved", nice and tidy... and *then*
ask.  otherwise the legal advice might be "bury your head in the sand,
just like us!"  that's, euphamistically, a good summary of the legal
counsel that VMware is engaging right now :)


> Also our engineers at Allwinner have removed the Google-VP6 and switched
> over to ffmpeg now.

aaaawesome.  well done!

> In the first place I just wanna be an engineer and wanna get the chance to find
> creative solutions and build a piece of art with every design I make.
> Allwinner gives me this chance. That's why I wanna work for them.

 cool!  sounds great!

> The will is here by many (but not all) of Allwinners members to fully clean up
> the GPL violations. We have internally (Skype and E-Mail) made up a plan to
> accomplish the task of GPL-cleanup.
> But this process takes time and also involves difficult social tasks...

 well, have you considered working with the managers who support these
efforts, to work together to draft a proposal to the Directors of the
Company?  (i'd suggest asking for eva's help in presenting it ok?)
i'm assuming that Chinese Company Law is the same as in the UK, here,
but if it is (or is similar) then the Directors will be the ones who
are legally and personally liable for any Criminal activity (such as
copyright infringement) of the company that they are directing, so it
would be in their *personal* best interests to help you!

 i appreciate that that is quite a huge step, but if you read the
gpl-violations resolution FAQ, notifying the Directors in a
responsible fashion - without fuss and without threats - is right
there at the top of the list of things to do.

> I hope this is something more clear now

yes it is - fantastic, and i wish you all success, and will help where i can.

l.