A number of major IT vendors have been accused of misusing software licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Harald Welte, a Linux kernel developer who runs gpl-violations.org, personally handed over warning letters to 13 technology companies at CeBIT this week, including telecoms giant Motorola and PC manufacturer Acer.
Welte claimed that the binary code of the companies' products appears to have used GPL code, but that they have not made source code available as required by the GPL. The letter warned companies that this might be the case, but did not mark the start of legal action, according to Welte.
"While the free and open source community is very happy to see more and more vendors adopt Linux and other GPL-licensed software, it is of great importance that those vendors comply with the respective liceDefender of the Linux faithnce conditions, just like with any other software," said Welte in a statement. "The warning notice gives them a chance to fix their products before they get into legal trouble."
Other companies that received a warning letter from Welte included Buffalo Technology, X-Micro Technology, Micronet, Trendware, Level One, Minitar and Ovislink.
Motorola, Acer, Buffalo and Trendware were unable to comment in time for this article.
Welte told ZDNet UK that he had already received a good response from Taiwanese company X-Micro, which was apparently not aware of the requirements of the GPL.
"When I went to the X-Micro booth, I met the vice-president of X-Micro and we sat down and discussed the issue," said Welte. "What he said confirmed my impression of what's going on in Taiwan — people there are not aware of their obligations as they don't have a tradition of copyright in Taiwan."
ZDNet UK recently spoke to Welte about his methods and the motivation behind gpl-violations.org. You can read the full interview here.
Talkback
And Hi time too the GPL is there to be adhered to not tossed aside willy nilly .
What really interestes me is when is someone ging to audit M$ Corp and there code base , You can bet your bottom dollar they have ripped a lot of GPL'ed stuff off
not that forcing windBloZe open source is a good idea at all in fact it stinks and would in all probability cause mass extintion of a lot of life forms .
It would just be nice to see Mr Billy Goat Gates squirm a little in public as he tries to defend thef and copyright violations in public
"What really interestes me is when is someone ging to audit M$ Corp and there code base."
sssshhhhh....I've heard that's already happening but don't tell M$. We want it to be a total surprise when the "muscle" shows up at their door like M$ has done to so many companies and users already.
".....it is of great importance that those vendors comply with the respective liceDefender of the Linux faithnce conditions, just like with any other software,"
"Defender of the Linux faith"? would this be one of your internal tags that wasn't meant to come out in the published article? And is that how you look at open-source advocates?