[Arm-netbook] Allwinner's LGPL violation

[Alain Williams]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 02:22:42PM +0000, Phil Hands wrote:
> Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <lkcl at lkcl.net> writes:
> ...
> >  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).
> 
> The wrapper approach sounds like it might not be that different from
> VMware's attempt to insulate themselves from the GPL, for which they're
> currently going to court in Hamburg:
> 
>   http://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/

Does that mean that we can add http://www.vmware.com/ to the list of web sites
that are to be blocked by the major ISPs as part of the UK push to deal with
copyright issues ? Is there any reason that this cannot be done now, ie before
the trial since, as far as I am aware, many of the sites being blocked have not
been taken to court and 'proof' is on the assertions on the copyright holders.

This is not an entirely frivolous point.  Many companies get away with GPL
infringement because the FLOSS authors do not have the legal muscle to take them
to court. Having their web sites 'banned' by assertion would be very
interesting.

I was given a drone on a recent birthday (made by DJI - Hong Kong based).  I
have seen hints that it & associated s/ware has a GPL base or is ripped off from
it. I need to dig a bit deeper before asking for code (which is not offered).

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
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