Motorola's GPL violation

[maxx_730]

To anyone that knows the GPL, could you please tell me which parts of the OS Motorola has to make available to us according to the GPL?

[maxx_730]

This has to with trying to get the source code for E680(i) for moto btw, for anyone wondering. I found the where to get the source code for A760/A768i:
Beijing Design Center, PCS
Motorola (China) Electronics Ltd.
No. 2 Dong San Huan Nan. Lu
Chao Yang District
Beijing, P.R. China
100022
Tel. 010-65642288
Fax: 010-65642299
I got this out of the A768i manual for anyone wondering. They included the full GPL in that manual, as well explanation about the usblan feature (it even has a shortcut in the menus for that in A760/A768i), as an addres where to get the source code. I have no idea why they didnt include all this in E680/A780. Damn moto

[cytux]

Hello maxx,

looked at the pdf you gave me. I believe when a coder/corporation uses gpl code they MUST open all code which is based of this code.

They must also open their code if it is licensed under the gpl, if based upon other gpl code or not. Did you wrote an email to Motorola and asked for the code, already?

[maxx_730]

Yeah..... but thats the problem, which parts of the OS are based on GPL? And i dint write an email to moto yet, i need to know what they should give to us first, thats why i started this topic. Thanks for your help, but can you be a bit more specific on what they should give to us?

[cytux]

As I see:

Kernel and Bootloader for shure.

But when we come to the native apps, there might be a problem. They used qt (or a derivate like qpe for mobiles) and there are versions out there, which are not under the gpl. Don't know if this has changed.

Also, qt is a development environment and apps you write with this tools are not based upon either the kernel or qt in a direct way. But this is a matter of sights. If they compiled their own "proprietary" code with qt, they can always say, they coded it from scratch and I suppose every justice will tend to this sight also.

But justice is always the last path to go. You need money, time and patience! And it could go the wrong way.

When the development of some tools are impossible because we haven't any code, why not try to get it? Motorola must have an own interest to give it to the community, because it will produce tons of apps and help to sell their phones without to invest much money in development. If they don't know this and decided to produce linux phones they would be simply crazy!

Under this light it should be possible to work together with Motorola, I believe.

[evaldas]

cytux, why do you think bootloader is GPL thing? I'm sure it's proprietary Motorola code.

We are shipping one embedded linux product and this was about a year ago when we received official letter from FSF demanding to release GPL source code for this product. And all this happened because they noticed we're using GNU "tar" archiver. I'm pretty sure motorola does the same
-rwxr-xr-x 1 ezx ezx 145076 Jun 23 13:19 /bin/tar

[maxx_730]

I think we should at least get the kernel, but im not sure about the drivers or libs.

[cytux]

I can't believe, that the bootloader is from the green grasses of Motorola, evaldas.

I followed the evolution of the bootloader at ipaq and zaurus and it was a hard work to get it stable and to consuming less power. Well, I don't know it exactly. But I guess the chance, that Motorola build it up from scratch is around 10 percent.

Drivers and libs is another issue, maxx. I think it's a border zone. But, tough, I am not a lawyer.

If it comes up, that Motorola are really unable to leak the sources, I would prefer to take a walk to the fsf. They have lawyers.

[maxx_730]

Well motorola has some other products then phones based on linux too, and they have eventually released the source code for those too, so its not like motorola doesnt listen at all or something.

[evaldas]

cytux, please take a look at this attachment and tell me if you recognize any line? from my experience this doesn't look similar to any embedded bootloader I know