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% Tutorial Text for the Detailed Study and Analysis of GPL and LGPL course
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%
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% Copyright (C) 2003, 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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% License: CC-By-SA-4.0
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% The copyright holders hereby grant the freedom to copy, modify, convey,
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% Adapt, and/or redistribute this work under the terms of the Creative
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% Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License.
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% This text is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
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% WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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% MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
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% You should have received a copy of the license with this document in
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% a file called 'CC-By-SA-4.0.txt'. If not, please visit
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% https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode to receive
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% the license text.
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\part{Case Studies in GPL Enforcement}
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{\parindent 0in
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This part is: \\
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\begin{tabbing}
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Copyright \= \copyright{} 2003, 2004 \= \hspace{.2in} Free Software Foundation, Inc. \\
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\end{tabbing}
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\vspace{1in}
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\begin{center}
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Authors of this part are: \\
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Bradley M. Kuhn \\
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John Sullivan
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\vspace{3in}
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Copy editors of this part include: \\
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Martin Michlmayr
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\vspace{3in}
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The copyright holders hereby grant the freedom to copy, modify, convey,
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Adapt, and/or redistribute this work under the terms of the Creative Commons
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Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License. A copy of that license is
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available at \verb=https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode=.
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\end{center}
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}
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% =====================================================================
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% START OF SECOND DAY SEMINAR SECTION
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% =====================================================================
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\chapter*{Preface}
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This one-day course presents the details of five different GPL
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compliance cases handled by FSF's GPL Compliance Laboratory. Each case
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offers unique insights into problems that can arise when the terms of
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the GPL are not properly followed, and how diplomatic negotiation between
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the violator and the copyright holder can yield positive results for
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both parties.
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Attendees should have successfully completely the course, a ``Detailed
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Study and Analysis of the GPL and LGPL,'' as the material from that
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course forms the building blocks for this material.
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This course is of most interest to lawyers who have clients or
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employers that deal with Free Software on a regular basis. However,
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technical managers and executives whose businesses use or distribute
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Free Software will also find the course very helpful.
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\bigskip
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These course materials are merely a summary of the highlights of the
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course presented. Please be aware that during the actual GPL course, class
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discussion supplements this printed curriculum. Simply reading it is
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not equivalent to attending the course.
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%FIXME-LATER: write these
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%\chapter{Not All GPL Enforcement is Created Equal}
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%\section{For-Profit Enforcement}
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%\section{Community and Non-Profit Enforcement}
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\chapter{Overview of Community Enforcement}
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The GPL is a Free Software license with legal teeth. Unlike licenses like
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the X11-style or various BSD licenses, the GPL (and by extension, the LGPL) is
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designed to defend as well as grant freedom. We saw in the last course
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that the GPL uses copyright law as a mechanism to grant all the key freedoms
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essential in Free Software, but also to ensure that those freedoms
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propagate throughout the distribution chain of the software.
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\section{Termination Begins Enforcement}
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As we have learned, the assurance that Free Software under the GPL remains
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Free Software is accomplished through various terms of the GPL: \S 3 ensures
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that binaries are always accompanied with source; \S 2 ensures that the
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sources are adequate, complete and usable; \S 6 and \S 7 ensure that the
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license of the software is always the GPL for everyone, and that no other
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legal agreements or licenses trump the GPL. It is \S 4, however, that ensures
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that the GPL can be enforced.
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Thus, \S 4 is where we begin our discussion of GPL enforcement. This
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clause is where the legal teeth of the license are rooted. As a copyright
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license, the GPL governs only the activities governed by copyright law ---
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copying, modifying and redistributing computer software. Unlike most
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copyright licenses, the GPL gives wide grants of permission for engaging with
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these activities. Such permissions continue, and all parties may exercise
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them until such time as one party violates the terms of the GPL\@. At the
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moment of such a violation (i.e., the engaging of copying, modifying or
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redistributing in ways not permitted by the GPL) \S 4 is invoked. While other
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parties may continue to operate under the GPL, the violating party loses their
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rights.
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Specifically, \S 4 terminates the violators' rights to continue
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engaging in the permissions that are otherwise granted by the GPL\@.
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Effectively, their rights revert to the copyright defaults ---
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no permission is granted to copy, modify, nor redistribute the work.
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Meanwhile, \S 5 points out that if the violator has no rights under
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the GPL, they are prohibited by copyright law from engaging in the
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activities of copying, modifying and distributing. They have lost
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these rights because they have violated the GPL, and no other license
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gives them permission to engage in these activities governed by copyright law.
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\section{Ongoing Violations}
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In conjunction with \S 4's termination of violators' rights, there is
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one final industry fact added to the mix: rarely does one engage in a
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single, solitary act of copying, distributing or modifying software.
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Almost always, a violator will have legitimately acquired a copy of a
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GPL'd program, either making modifications or not, and then begun
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distributing that work. For example, the violator may have put the
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software in boxes and sold them at stores. Or perhaps the software
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was put up for download on the Internet. Regardless of the delivery
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mechanism, violators almost always are engaged in {\em ongoing\/}
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violation of the GPL\@.
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In fact, when we discover a GPL violation that occurred only once --- for
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example, a user group who distributed copies of a GNU/Linux system without
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source at one meeting --- we rarely pursue it with a high degree of
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tenacity. In our minds, such a violation is an educational problem, and
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unless the user group becomes a repeat offender (as it turns out, they
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never do), we simply forward along a FAQ entry that best explains how user
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groups can most easily comply with the GPL, and send them on their merry way.
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It is only the cases of {\em ongoing\/} GPL violation that warrant our
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active attention. We vehemently pursue those cases where dozens, hundreds
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or thousands of customers are receiving software that is out of
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compliance, and where the company continually offers for sale (or
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distributes gratis as a demo) software distributions that include GPL'd
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components out of compliance. Our goal is to maximize the impact of
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enforcement and educate industries who are making such a mistake on a
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large scale.
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In addition, such ongoing violation shows that a particular company is
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committed to a GPL'd product line. We are thrilled to learn that someone
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is benefiting from Free Software, and we understand that sometimes they
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become confused about the rules of the road. Rather than merely
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giving us a postmortem to perform on a past mistake, an ongoing violation
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gives us an active opportunity to educate a new contributor to the GPL'd
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commons about proper procedures to contribute to the community.
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Our central goal is not, in fact, to merely clear up a particular violation.
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In fact, over time, we hope that our compliance lab will be out of
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business. We seek to educate the businesses that engage in commerce
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related to GPL'd software to obey the rules of the road and allow them to
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operate freely under them. Just as a traffic officer would not revel in
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reminding people which side of the road to drive on, so we do not revel in
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violations. By contrast, we revel in the successes of educating an
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ongoing violator about the GPL so that GPL compliance becomes a second-nature
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matter, allowing that company to join the GPL ecosystem as a contributor.
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\section{How are Violations Discovered?}
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Our enforcement of the GPL is not a fund-raising effort; in fact, FSF's GPL
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Compliance Lab runs at a loss (in other words, it is subsided by our
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donors). Our violation reports come from volunteers, who have encountered,
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in their business or personal life, a device or software product that
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appears to contain GPL'd software. These reports are almost always sent
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via email to $<$license-violation@fsf.org$>$.
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Our first order of business, upon receiving such a report, is to seek
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independent confirmation. When possible, we get a copy of the software
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product. For example, if it is an offering that is downloadable from a
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Web site, we download it and investigate ourselves. When it is not
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possible for us to actually get a copy of the software, we ask the
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reporter to go through the same process we would use in examining the
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software.
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By rough estimation, about 95\% of violations at this stage can be
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confirmed by simple commands. Almost all violators have merely made an
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error and have no nefarious intentions. They have made no attempt to
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remove our copyright notices from the software. Thus, given the
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third-party binary, {\tt tpb}, usually, a simple command (on a GNU/Linux
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system) such as the following will find a Free Software copyright notice
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and GPL reference:
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\begin{quotation}
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{\tt strings tpb | grep Copyright}
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\end{quotation}
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In other words, it is usually more than trivial to confirm that GPL'd
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software is included.
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Once we have confirmed that a violation has indeed occurred, we must then
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determine whose copyright has been violated. Contrary to popular belief,
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FSF does not have the power to enforce the GPL in all cases. Since the GPL
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operates under copyright law, the powers of enforcement --- to seek
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redress once \S 4 has been invoked --- lie with the copyright holder of
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the software. FSF is one of the largest copyright holders in the world of
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GPL'd software, but we are by no means the only one. Thus, we sometimes
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discover that while GPL'd code is present in the software, there is no
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software copyrighted by FSF present.
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In cases where FSF does not hold copyright interest in the software, but
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we have confirmed a violation, we contact the copyright holders of the
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software, and encourage them to enforce the GPL\@. We offer our good offices
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to help negotiate compliance on their behalf, and many times, we help as a
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third party to settle such GPL violations. However, what we will describe
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primarily in this course is FSF's first-hand experience enforcing its own
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copyrights and the GPL\@.
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\section{First Contact}
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The Free Software community is built on a structure of voluntary
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cooperation and mutual help. Our community has learned that cooperation
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works best when you assume the best of others, and only change policy,
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procedures and attitudes when some specific event or occurrence indicates
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that a change is necessary. We treat the process of GPL enforcement in
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the same way. Our goal is to encourage violators to join the cooperative
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community of software sharing, so we want to open our hand in friendship.
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Therefore, once we have confirmed a violation, our first assumption is
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that the violation is an oversight or otherwise a mistake due to confusion
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about the terms of the license. We reach out to the violator and ask them
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to work with us in a collaborative way to bring the product into
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compliance. We have received the gamut of possible reactions to such
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requests, and in this course, we examine four specific examples of such
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compliance work.
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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\chapter{Bortez: Modified GCC SDK}
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In our first case study, we will consider Bortez, a company that
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produces software and hardware toolkits to assist OEM vendors, makers
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of consumer electronic devices.
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\section{Facts}
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One of Bortez's key products is a Software Development Kit (``SDK'')
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designed to assist developers building software for a specific class of
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consumer electronics devices.
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FSF received a report that the SDK may be based on the GNU Compiler
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Collection (which is an FSF-copyrighted collection of tools for software
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development in C, C++ and other popular languages). FSF investigated the
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claim, but was unable to confirm the violation. The violation reporter
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was unresponsive to follow-up requests for more information.
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Since FSF was unable to confirm the violation, we did not pursue it any
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further. Bogus reports do happen, and we do not want to burden companies
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with specious GPL violation complaints. FSF shelved the matter until
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more evidence was discovered.
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FSF was later able to confirm the violation when two additional reports
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surfaced from other violation reporters, both of whom had used the SDK
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professionally and noticed clear similarities to FSF's GNU GCC\@. FSF's
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Compliance Engineer asked the reporters to run standard tests to confirm
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the violation, and it was confirmed that Bortez's SDK was indeed a
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modified version of GCC\@. Bortez had ported to Windows and added a number
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of features, including support for a specific consumer device chipset and
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additional features to aid in the linking process (``LP'') for those
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specific devices. FSF explained the rights that the GPL afforded these
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customers and pointed out, for example, that Bortez only needed to provide
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source to those in possession of the binaries, and that the users may need
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to request that source (if \S 3(b) was exercised). The violators
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confirmed that such requests were not answered.
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FSF brought the matter to the attention of Bortez, who immediately
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escalated the matter to their attorneys. After a long negotiation,
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Bortez acknowledged that their SDK was indeed a modified version of
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GCC\@. Bortez released most of the source, but some disagreement
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occurred over whether LP was also derivative of GCC\@. After repeated
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FSF inquiries, Bortez reaudited the source to discover that FSF's
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analysis was correct. Bortez determined that LP included a number of
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source files copied from the GCC code-base.
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\label{davrik-build-problems}
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Once the full software release was made available, FSF asked the violation
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reporters if it addressed the problem. Reports came back that the source
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did not properly build. FSF asked Bortez to provide better build
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instructions with the software, and such build instructions were
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incorporated into the next software release.
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At FSF's request as well, Bortez informed customers who had previously
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purchased the product that the source was now available by announcing
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the availability on its Web site and via a customer newsletter.
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Bortez did have some concerns regarding patents. They wished to include a
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statement with the software release that made sure they were not granting
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any patent permission other than what was absolutely required by the GPL\@.
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They understood that their patent assertions could not trump any rights
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granted by the GPL\@. The following language was negotiated into the release:
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\begin{quotation}
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Subject to the qualifications stated below, Bortez, on behalf of itself
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and its Subsidiaries, agrees not to assert the Claims against you for your
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making, use, offer for sale, sale, or importation of the Bortez's GNU
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Utilities or derivative works of the Bortez's GNU Utilities
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(``Derivatives''), but only to the extent that any such Derivatives are
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licensed by you under the terms of the GNU General Public License. The
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Claims are the claims of patents that Bortez or its Subsidiaries have
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standing to enforce that are directly infringed by the making, use, or
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sale of an Bortez Distributed GNU Utilities in the form it was distributed
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by Bortez and that do not include any limitation that reads on hardware;
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the Claims do not include any additional patent claims held by Bortez that
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cover any modifications of, derivative works based on or combinations with
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the Bortez's GNU Utilities, even if such a claim is disclosed in the same
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patent as a Claim. Subsidiaries are entities that are wholly owned by
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Bortez.
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This statement does not negate, limit or restrict any rights you already
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have under the GNU General Public License version 2.
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\end{quotation}
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This quelled Bortez's concerns about other patent licensing they sought to
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do outside of the GPL'd software, and satisfied FSF's concerns that Bortez
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give proper permissions to exercise teachings of patents that were
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exercised in their GPL'd software release.
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Finally, a GPL Compliance Officer inside Bortez was appointed to take
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responsibility for all matters of GPL compliance inside the company.
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Bortez is responsible for informing FSF if the position is given to
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someone else inside the company, and making sure that FSF has direct
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contact with Bortez's Compliance Officer.
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\section{Lessons}
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This case introduces a number of concepts regarding GPL enforcement.
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\begin{enumerate}
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\item {\bf Enforcement should not begin until the evidence is confirmed.}
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Most companies that distribute GPL'd software do so in compliance, and at
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times, violation reports are mistaken. Even with extensive efforts in
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GPL education, many users do not fully understand their rights and the
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obligations that companies have. By working through the investigation
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with reporters, the violation can be properly confirmed, and {\bf the
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user of the software can be educated about what to expect with GPL'd
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software}. When users and customers of GPL'd products know their
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rights, what to expect, and how to properly exercise their rights
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(particularly under \S 3(b)), it reduces the chances for user
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frustration and inappropriate community outcry about an alleged GPL
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violation.
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\item {\bf GPL compliance requires friendly negotiation and cooperation.}
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Often, attorneys and managers are legitimately surprised to find out
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GPL'd software is included in their company's products. Engineers
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sometimes include GPL'd software without understanding the requirements.
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This does not excuse companies from their obligations under the license,
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but it does mean that care and patience are essential for reaching GPL
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compliance. We want companies to understand that participating and
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benefiting from a collaborative Free Software community is not a burden,
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so we strive to make the process of coming into compliance as smooth as
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possible.
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\item {\bf Confirming compliance is a community effort.} The whole point
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of making sure that software distributors respect the terms of the GPL is to
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allow a thriving software sharing community to benefit and improve the
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work. FSF is not the expert on how a compiler for consumer electronic
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devices should work. We therefore inform the community who originally
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brought the violation to our attention and ask them to assist in
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evaluation and confirmation of the product's compliance. Of course, FSF
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coordinates and oversees the process, but we do not want compliance for
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compliance's sake; rather, we wish to foster a cooperating community of
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development around the Free Software in question, and encourage the
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once-violator to begin participating in that community.
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\item {\bf Informing the harmed community is part of compliance.} FSF asks
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violators to make some attempt --- such as via newsletters and the
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company's Web site --- to inform those who already have the products as
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to their rights under the GPL\@. One of the key thrusts of the GPL's \S 1 and
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\S 3 is to {\em make sure the user knows she has these rights\/}. If a
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product was received out of compliance by a customer, she may never
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actually discover that she has such rights. Informing customers, in a
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way that is not burdensome but has a high probability of successfully
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reaching those who would seek to exercise their freedoms, is essential
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to properly remedy the mistake.
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\item {\bf Lines between various copyright, patent, and other legal
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mechanisms must be precisely defined and considered.} The most
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difficult negotiation point of the Bortez case was drafting language
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that simultaneously protected Bortez's patent rights outside of the
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GPL'd source, but was consistent with the implicit patent grant in
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the GPL\@. As we discussed in the first course of this series, there is
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indeed an implicit patent grant with the GPL, thanks to \S 6 and \S 7.
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However, many companies become nervous and wish to make the grant
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explicit to assure themselves that the grant is sufficiently narrow for
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their needs. We understand that there is no reasonable way to determine
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what patent claims read on a company's GPL holdings and which do not, so
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we do not object to general language that explicitly narrows the patent
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grant to only those patents that were, in fact, exercised by the GPL'd
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software as released by the company.
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\end{enumerate}
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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\chapter{Bracken: a Minor Violation in a GNU/Linux Distribution}
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In this case study, we consider a minor violation made by a company whose
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knowledge of the Free Software community and its functions is deep.
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\section{The Facts}
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Bracken produces a GNU/Linux operating system product that is sold
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primarily to OEM vendors to be placed in appliance devices used for a
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single purpose, such as an Internet-browsing-only device. The product
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is almost 100\% Free Software, mostly licensed under the GPL and related
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Free Software licenses.
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FSF found out about this violation through a report first posted on a
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Slashdot\footnote{Slashdot is a popular news and discussion site for
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technical readers.} comment, and then it was brought to our attention again
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by another Free Software copyright holder who had discovered the
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same violation.
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Bracken's GNU/Linux product is delivered directly from their Web site.
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This allowed FSF engineers to directly download and confirm the
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violation quickly. Two primary problems were discovered with the
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online distribution:
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\begin{itemize}
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\item No source code nor offer for source code was provided for a number
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of components for the distributed GNU/Linux system; only binaries were
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available
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\item An End User License Agreement (``EULA'') was included that
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contradicted the permissions granted by the GPL\@
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\end{itemize}
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FSF contacted Bracken and gave them the details of the violation. Bracken
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immediately ceased distribution of the product temporarily and set forth
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a plan to bring themselves back into compliance. This plan included the
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following steps:
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\begin{itemize}
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\item Bracken attorneys would rewrite the EULA to comply with the GPL and
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would vet the new EULA through FSF before use
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|
|
\item Bracken engineers would provide source side-by-side with the
|
|
binaries for the GNU/Linux distribution on the site (and on CD's, if
|
|
ever they distributed that way)
|
|
|
|
\item Bracken attorneys would run an internal seminar for its engineers
|
|
regarding proper GPL compliance to help ensure that such oversights
|
|
regarding source releases would not occur in the future
|
|
|
|
\item Bracken would resume distribution of the product only after FSF
|
|
formally restored Bracken's distribution rights
|
|
\end{itemize}
|
|
|
|
This case was completed in about a month. FSF approved the new EULA
|
|
text. The key portion in the EULA relating to the GPL read as follows:
|
|
|
|
\begin{quotation}
|
|
Many of the Software Programs included in Bracken Software are distributed
|
|
under the terms of agreements with Third Parties (``Third Party
|
|
Agreements'') which may expand or limit the Licensee's rights to use
|
|
certain Software Programs as set forth in [this EULA]. Certain Software
|
|
Programs may be licensed (or sublicensed) to Licensee under the GNU
|
|
General Public License and other similar license agreements listed in part
|
|
in this section which, among other rights, permit the Licensee to copy,
|
|
modify and redistribute certain Software Programs, or portions thereof,
|
|
and have access to the source code of certain Software Programs, or
|
|
portions thereof. In addition, certain Software Programs, or portions
|
|
thereof, may be licensed (or sublicensed) to Licensee under terms stricter
|
|
than those set forth in [this EULA]. The Licensee must review the
|
|
electronic documentation that accompanies certain Software Programs, or
|
|
portions thereof, for the applicable Third Party Agreements. To the
|
|
extent any Third Party Agreements require that Bracken provide rights to
|
|
use, copy or modify a Software Program that are broader than the rights
|
|
granted to the Licensee in [this EULA], then such rights shall take
|
|
precedence over the rights and restrictions granted in this Agreement
|
|
solely for such Software Programs.
|
|
\end{quotation}
|
|
|
|
FSF restored Bracken's distribution rights shortly after the work was
|
|
completed as described.
|
|
|
|
\section{Lessons Learned}
|
|
|
|
This case was probably the most quickly and easily resolved of all GPL
|
|
violations in the history of FSF's Compliance Lab. The ease with which
|
|
the problem was resolved shows a number of cultural factors that play a
|
|
role in GPL compliance.
|
|
|
|
\begin{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf Companies that understand Free Software culture better have an
|
|
easier time with compliance.} Bracken's products were designed and
|
|
built around the GNU/Linux system and Free Software components. Their
|
|
engineers were deeply familiar with the Free Software ecosystem, and
|
|
their lawyers had seen and reviewed the GPL before. The violation was
|
|
completely an honest mistake. Since the culture inside the company had
|
|
already adapted to the cooperative style of resolution in the Free
|
|
Software world, there was very little work for either party to bring the
|
|
product into compliance.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf When people in key positions understand the Free Software
|
|
nature of their software products, compliance concerns are as
|
|
mundane as minor software bugs.} Even the most functional system or
|
|
structure has its problems, and successful business often depends on
|
|
agile response to the problems that do come up; avoiding problems
|
|
altogether is a pipe dream. Minor GPL violations can and do happen
|
|
even with well-informed redistributors. However, resolution is
|
|
reached quickly when the company --- and in particular, the lawyers,
|
|
managers, and engineers working on the Free Software product lines
|
|
--- have adapted to Free Software culture that the lower-level
|
|
engineer already understood
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf Legally, distribution must stop when a violation is
|
|
identified.} In our opinion, Bracken went above and beyond the call of
|
|
duty by ceasing distribution while the violation was being resolved.
|
|
Under GPL \S 4, the redistributor loses the right to distribute the
|
|
software, and thus they are in ongoing violation of copyright law if
|
|
they distribute before rights are restored. It is FSF's policy to
|
|
temporarily allow distribution while compliance negotiations are ongoing
|
|
and only in the most extreme cases (where the other party appears to be
|
|
negotiating in bad faith) does FSF even threaten an injunction on
|
|
copyright grounds. However, Bracken --- as a good Free Software citizen
|
|
--- chose to be on the safe side and do the legally correct thing while
|
|
the violation case was pending. From start to finish, it took less
|
|
than a month to resolve. This lapse in distribution did not, to FSF's
|
|
knowledge, impact Bracken's business in any way.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf EULAs are a common area for GPL problems.} Often, EULAs
|
|
are drafted from boilerplate text that a company uses for all its
|
|
products. Even the most diligent attorneys forget or simply do not
|
|
know that a product contains software licensed under the GPL and other
|
|
Free Software licenses. Drafting a EULA that accounts for such
|
|
licenses is straightforward; the text quoted above works just fine.
|
|
The EULA must be designed so that it does not trump rights and
|
|
permissions already granted by the GPL\@. The EULA must clearly state
|
|
that if there is a conflict between it and the GPL, with regard to GPL'd
|
|
code, the GPL is the overriding license.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf Compliance Officers are rarely necessary when companies are
|
|
educated about GPL compliance.} As we saw in the Bortez case, FSF asks
|
|
that a formal ``GPL Compliance Officer'' be appointed inside a
|
|
previously violating organization to shepherd the organization to a
|
|
cooperative approach to GPL compliance. However, when FSF
|
|
sees that an organization already has such an approach, there is no
|
|
need to request that such an officer be appointed.
|
|
|
|
\end{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
|
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
\chapter{Vigorien: Security, Export Controls, and GPL Compliance}
|
|
|
|
This case study introduces how concerns of ``security through obscurity''
|
|
and regulatory problems can impact GPL compliance matters.
|
|
|
|
\section{The Facts}
|
|
|
|
Vigorien distributes a back-up solution product that allows system
|
|
administrators to create encrypted backups of file-systems on
|
|
Unix-like computers. The product is based on GNU tar, a backup utility
|
|
that replaces the standard Unix utility simply called tar, but has
|
|
additional features.
|
|
|
|
Vigorien's backup solution added cryptographic features to GNU tar, and
|
|
included a suite of utilities and graphical user interfaces surrounding
|
|
GNU tar to make backups convenient.
|
|
|
|
FSF discovered the violation from a user report, and determined that the
|
|
cryptographic features were the only part of the product that constituted
|
|
a derivative work of GNU tar; the extraneous utilities merely made
|
|
shell calls out to GNU tar. FSF requested that Vigorien come into
|
|
compliance with the GPL by releasing the source of GNU tar, with the
|
|
cryptographic modifications, to its customers.
|
|
|
|
Vigorien released the original GNU tar sources, but kept the cryptographic
|
|
modifications proprietary. They argued that the security of their system
|
|
depending on keeping the software proprietary and that regardless, USA
|
|
export restrictions on cryptographic software prohibited such a release.
|
|
FSF disputed the first claim, pointing out that Vigorien had only one
|
|
option if they did not want to release the source: they would have to
|
|
remove GNU tar from the software and not distribute it further. Vigorien
|
|
rejected this suggestion, since GNU tar was an integral part of the
|
|
product, and the security changes were useless without GNU tar.
|
|
|
|
Regarding the export control claims, FSF proposed a number of options,
|
|
including release of the source from one of Vigorien's divisions overseas
|
|
where no such restrictions occurred, but Vigorien argued that the problem
|
|
was insoluble because they operated primarily in the USA\@.
|
|
|
|
The deadlock on the second issue was resolved when those cryptographic
|
|
export restrictions were lifted shortly thereafter, and FSF again raised
|
|
the matter with Vigorien. At that point, they dropped the first claim and
|
|
agreed to release the remaining source module to their customers. They
|
|
did so, and the violation was resolved.
|
|
|
|
|
|
\section{Lessons Learned}
|
|
|
|
\begin{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf Removing the GPL'd portion of the product is always an
|
|
option.} Many violators' first response is to simply refuse to
|
|
release the source code as the GPL requires. FSF offers the option to
|
|
simply remove the GPL'd portions from the product and continue along
|
|
without them. Every case where this has been suggested has led to
|
|
the same conclusion. Like Vigorien, the violator argues that the
|
|
product cannot function without the GPL'd components, and they
|
|
cannot effectively replace them.
|
|
|
|
Such an outcome is simply further evidence that the combined work in
|
|
question is indeed a modified version of the original GPL'd component.
|
|
If the other components cannot stand on their own and be useful without
|
|
the GPL'd portions, then one cannot effectively argue that the work as a
|
|
whole is not a based on the GPL'd portions.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf The whole product is not always covered.} In this case,
|
|
Vigorien had additional works aggregated. The backup system was a suite
|
|
of utilities, some of which were the GPL and some of which were not. While
|
|
the cryptographic routines were tightly coupled with GNU tar and clearly
|
|
made a whole new combined work of both components, the various GUI utilities were separate and
|
|
independent works merely aggregated with the distribution of the
|
|
GNU-tar-based product.
|
|
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf ``Security'' concerns do not exonerate a distributor from GPL
|
|
obligations, and ``security through obscurity'' does not work anyway.}
|
|
The argument that ``this is security software, so it cannot be released
|
|
in source form'' is not a valid defense for explaining why the terms of
|
|
the GPL are ignored. If companies do not want to release source code
|
|
for some reason, then they should not base the work on GPL'd software.
|
|
No external argument for noncompliance can hold weight if the work as
|
|
a whole is indeed a modified version of a GPL'd program.
|
|
|
|
The ``security concerns'' argument is often floated as a reason to keep
|
|
software proprietary, but the computer security community has on
|
|
numerous occasions confirmed that such arguments are entirely specious.
|
|
Security experts have found --- since the beginnings of the field of
|
|
cryptography in the ancient world --- that sharing results about systems
|
|
and having such systems withstand peer review and scrutiny builds the
|
|
most secure systems. While full disclosure may help some who wish to
|
|
compromise security, it helps those who want to fix problems even more
|
|
by identifying them early.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf External regulatory problems can be difficult to resolve.}
|
|
The GPL, though grounded in copyright law, does not have the power to trump
|
|
regulations like export controls. While Vigorien's ``security
|
|
concerns'' were specious, their export control concerns were not. It is
|
|
indeed a difficult problem that FSF acknowledges. We want compliance
|
|
with the GPL and respect for users' freedoms, but we certainly do not expect
|
|
companies to commit criminal offenses for the sake of compliance. We
|
|
will see more about this issue in our next case study.
|
|
\end{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
|
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
\chapter{Haxil, Polgara, and Thesulac: Mergers, Upstream Providers and Radio Devices}
|
|
|
|
This case study considers an ongoing (at the time of writing) violation
|
|
that has occurred. By the end of the investigation period, three
|
|
companies were involved and many complex issues arose.
|
|
|
|
\section{The Facts}
|
|
|
|
Haxil produced a consumer electronics device which included a mini
|
|
GNU/Linux distribution to control the device. The device was of interest
|
|
to many technically-minded consumers, who purchased the device and very
|
|
quickly discovered that Free Software was included without source.
|
|
Mailing lists throughout the Free Software community erupted with
|
|
complaints about the problem, and FSF quickly investigated.
|
|
|
|
FSF confirmed that FSF-copyrighted GPL'd software was included. In
|
|
addition, the whole distribution included GPL'd works from hundreds of
|
|
individual copyright holders, many of whom were, at this point, up in
|
|
arms about the violation.
|
|
|
|
Meanwhile, Haxil was in the midst of being acquired by Polgara. Polgara
|
|
was as surprised as everyone else to discover the product was based on
|
|
GPL'd software; this fact had not been part of the disclosures made during
|
|
acquisition. FSF contacted Haxil, Polgara, and the product managers
|
|
who had transitioned into the ``Haxil division'' of the newly-merged
|
|
Polgara company. Polgara's General Counsel's office worked with FSF on
|
|
the matter.
|
|
|
|
FSF formed a coalition with the other primary copyright holders
|
|
to pursue the enforcement effort on their behalf. FSF communicated
|
|
directly with Polgara's representatives to begin working through the
|
|
issues on behalf of itself and the Free Software community at large.
|
|
|
|
Polgara pointed out that the software distribution they used was mostly
|
|
contributed by an upstream provider, Thesulac, and Haxil's changes to that
|
|
code base were minimal. Polgara negotiated with Thesulac to obtain the
|
|
source, although the issue moved very slowly in the channels between
|
|
Polgara and Thesulac.
|
|
|
|
FSF encouraged a round-table meeting so that high bandwidth communication
|
|
could occur between FSF, Polgara and Thesulac. Polgara and Thesulac
|
|
agreed, and that discussion began. Thesulac provided nearly complete
|
|
sources to Polgara, and Polgara made a full software release on their
|
|
Web site. At the time of writing, that software still has some build
|
|
problems (similar to those that occurred with Bortez, as described in
|
|
Section~\ref{davrik-build-problems}). FSF continues to negotiate with
|
|
Polgara and Thesulac to resolve these problems, which have a clear path to
|
|
a solution and are expected to resolve.
|
|
|
|
Similar to the Vigorien case, Thesulac has regulatory concerns. In this
|
|
case, it is not export controls --- an issue that has since been resolved
|
|
--- but radio spectrum regulation. Since this consumer electronic device
|
|
contains a software-programmable radio transmitter, regulations in (at
|
|
least) the USA and Japan prohibit release of those portions of the code
|
|
that operate the device. Since this is a low-level programming issue, the
|
|
changes to operate the device form a single combined work with the kernel named
|
|
Linux. A decade later, this situation remains largely unresolved.
|
|
|
|
\section{Lessons Learned}
|
|
|
|
\begin{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf Community outrage, while justified, can often make negotiation
|
|
more difficult.} FSF has a strong policy never to publicize names of
|
|
GPL violators if they are negotiating in a friendly way and operating in
|
|
good faith toward compliance. Most violations are honest mistakes, and
|
|
FSF sees no reason to publicly admonish violators who genuinely want to
|
|
come into compliance with the GPL and to work hard staying in compliance.
|
|
|
|
This case was so public in the Free Software community that both Haxil's
|
|
and Polgara's representatives were nearly shell-shocked by the time FSF
|
|
began negotiations. There was much work required to diffuse the
|
|
situation. We empathize with our community and their outrage about GPL
|
|
violations, but we also want to follow a path that leads expediently
|
|
to compliance. In our experience, public outcry works best as a last
|
|
resort, not the first.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf For software companies, GPL compliance belongs on a corporate
|
|
acquisition checklist. } Polgara was truly amazed that Haxil had used
|
|
GPL'd software in a major new product line but never informed Polgara
|
|
during the acquisition process. While GPL compliance is not a
|
|
particularly difficult matter, it is an additional obligation that comes
|
|
along with the product line. When planning mergers and joint ventures,
|
|
one should include lists of GPL'd components contained in the products
|
|
discussed.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf Compliance problems of upstream providers do not excuse a
|
|
violation for the downstream distributor.} To paraphrase \S 6, upstream
|
|
providers are not responsible for enforcing compliance of their
|
|
downstream, nor are downstream distributors responsible for compliance
|
|
problems of upstream providers. However, engaging in distribution of
|
|
GPL'd works out of compliance is still just that: a compliance problem.
|
|
When FSF carries out enforcement, we are patient and sympathetic when
|
|
the problem appears to be upstream. In fact, we urge the violator to
|
|
point us to the upstream provider so we may talk to them directly. In
|
|
this case, we were happy to begin negotiations with Thesulac. However,
|
|
Polgara still has an obligation to bring their product into compliance,
|
|
regardless of Thesulac's response.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf It behooves upstream providers to advise downstream
|
|
distributors about compliance matters.} FSF has encouraged Thesulac to
|
|
distribute a ``good practices for GPL compliance'' document with their
|
|
product. Polgara added various software components to Thesulac's
|
|
product, and it is conceivable that such additions can introduce
|
|
compliance. In FSF's opinion, Thesulac is in no way legally responsible
|
|
for such a violation introduced by their customer, but it behooves them
|
|
from a marketing standpoint to educate their customers about using the
|
|
product. We can argue whether or not it is your coffee vendor's fault
|
|
if you burn yourself with their product, but (likely) no one on either
|
|
side would dispute the prudence of placing a ``caution: hot'' label on
|
|
the cup.
|
|
|
|
\item {\bf FSF enforcement often avoids redundant enforcement cases from
|
|
many parties.} Most Free Software systems have hundreds of copyright
|
|
holders. Some have thousands. FSF is in a unique position as one of
|
|
the largest single copyright holders on GPL'd software and as a
|
|
respected umpire in the community, neutrally enforcing the rules of the
|
|
GPL road. FSF works hard in the community to convince copyright
|
|
holders that consolidating GPL claims through FSF is better for them,
|
|
and more likely to yield positive compliance results.
|
|
|
|
A few copyright holders engage in the ``proprietary relicensing''
|
|
business, so they use GPL enforcement as a sales channel for that
|
|
business. FSF, as a community-oriented, not-for-profit organization,
|
|
seeks only to preserve the freedom of Free Software in its enforcement
|
|
efforts. As it turns out, most of the community of copyright holders
|
|
of Free Software want the same thing. Share and share alike is a
|
|
simple rule to follow, and following that rule to FSF's satisfaction
|
|
usually means you are following it to the satisfaction of the entire
|
|
Free Software community.
|
|
|
|
\end{enumerate}
|
|
|
|
|
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
% FIXME: make this section properly TeX-formatted
|
|
\chapter{ThinkPenguin Wireless Router: A study in Excellent CCS}
|
|
|
|
This case study does a step-by-step build and installation analysis of one
|
|
of the best Complete, Corresponding Source (CCS) releases we've seen. The
|
|
CSS release studied here was provided for the binary distribution of a
|
|
physical product by ThinkPenguin. The product is the model
|
|
``TPE-NWIFIROUTER'', a wireless router.
|
|
|
|
The method of
|
|
distribution (complete source accompanying the product) and the way the source
|
|
was laid out provide very good examples of how to make things easier for both
|
|
the distributor and the purchaser of the hardware containing GPLed components.
|
|
|
|
\section{Root Filesystem and Kernel Compilation}
|
|
|
|
* We found a CD included in the box that the ThinkPenguin TPE-NWIFIROUTER
|
|
shipped in, labelled "libreCMC v1.2.1 source code". On the CD, there was a
|
|
README file at the top level, which mentioned that to build the software, one
|
|
needed a GNU/Linux system as well as a list of approximately 10 packages.
|
|
These sorts of plain text instructions are helpful because we know what kind
|
|
of system we are expected to use, and what commands we should run on it. Such
|
|
instructions are not strictly required, as an obviously-named shell script may
|
|
suffice, but they are helpful in clarifying any ambiguities that may arise.
|
|
** Since it appears that this source release will build on a wide range of
|
|
distributions, it was fine that no specific distribution was specified.
|
|
However, most source releases we see will only build on a very specific
|
|
distribution, due to a variety of assumptions made about the build
|
|
environment. While such a situation is not ideal in the general sense, it is
|
|
fine to specify a particular distribution that must be use to build the
|
|
source release (such as "Debian 7 amd64"), from a compliance perspective.
|
|
As an example, we noticed such an assumption later on in this source release,
|
|
but it would be easy to correct in the instructions in this situation (see
|
|
"`GLIBC\verb0_02.14' not found" below).
|
|
|
|
% FIXME: Spend some time here (admittedly a digression: maybe refer to
|
|
% another section later?) about how it's ok to specify a specific build
|
|
% environment.
|
|
% FIXME(dg): Hopefully the above will suffice. I can expand more/differently if
|
|
% such is desired.
|
|
|
|
* The actual building of the source code was completed in the following way:
|
|
** Since the instructions didn't mention a specific distro to use, we ran the
|
|
build on an amd64 Debian 6 machine we had. The only distro requirement was:
|
|
|
|
To build your own firmware you need to have access to a GNU/Linux system
|
|
(case-sensitive filesystem required).
|
|
|
|
** The README mentioned that:
|
|
|
|
"In order to build firmware images for your router,the
|
|
following needs to be installed :
|
|
|
|
gcc, binutils, bzip2, flex, python, perl, make, find,
|
|
grep, diff, unzip, gawk, getopt, libz-dev and libc headers."
|
|
|
|
So we ran "dpkg --list" and confirmed that each package was installed (this
|
|
is indicated by a leading "ii" on the line containing the package). Other
|
|
GNU/Linux distributions may have other ways of determing which packages are
|
|
installed.
|
|
** We then extracted the LibreCMC tarball by running
|
|
"tar --posix -jxpf /media/libreCMC\verb0_0v1\verb0_02\verb0_01\verb0_0SRC/librecmc-v1.2.1.tar.bz2". The
|
|
CD did contain another tarball (librecmc-u-boot.tar.bz2), but there appeared
|
|
to be separate instructions for that (in the u-boot\verb0_0reflash text file in the
|
|
same directory). Having the README be more explicit about this would be nice
|
|
but did not ultimately prevent us from determing the proper steps to execute.
|
|
** The README mentioned the following optional step, which we skipped because
|
|
we did not need to modify the configuration for our initial build:
|
|
|
|
Please use "make menuconfig" to configure your appreciated
|
|
configuration for the toolchain and firmware. Please note that
|
|
the default configuration is what was used to build the firmware
|
|
image for your router. It is advised that you use this configuration.
|
|
|
|
** The next instruction was 'Simply running "make" will build your firmware.'
|
|
So we entered the "librecmc" directory that had been created from the above
|
|
"tar" command and then ran "make". The build took about 40 minutes to run on
|
|
our system. The command used and output from running it are available here:
|
|
|
|
enforcement-case-studies\verb0_0log-output/thinkpenguin\verb0_0librecmc-complete.log
|
|
|
|
% FIXME: Above, I'd like to see more ``walk through'' of the step by step
|
|
% instructions. The text is a bit terse: could be expanded to talk more.
|
|
% FIXME(dg): Hopefully the above will suffice. I can expand more/differently if
|
|
% such is desired.
|
|
|
|
* It was helpful to know that we could use "make menuconfig" for configuration
|
|
changes, as being able to modify the source is an important part of the GPL's
|
|
requirements. Adding instructions like these shows that the distributor is
|
|
aware of and interested in promoting the spirit of the GPL, by making it
|
|
easier to modify the source than may be strictly required by the GPL's text.
|
|
|
|
% FIXME: We should somewhere (perhaps on each step we discuss) talk about
|
|
% what often goes wrong on those steps, and why this is right. As written
|
|
% now, there is no driving home of the fact that it is uncommon that things
|
|
% are so smooth. :)
|
|
% FIXME(dg): Hopefully the below will suffice. I can expand more/differently if
|
|
% such is desired. (I presume the above comment relates to the below text.)
|
|
|
|
* The "make" step completed successfully on our system and resulted in several
|
|
files being generated in the bin/ar71xx directory, namely firmware images.
|
|
** This step is normally where we run into the greatest number of build issues
|
|
(and thus compliance problems). In many cases, the "make" step will fail due
|
|
to a missing package or because toolchain paths are not setup correctly. As
|
|
a result, it is important to test the provided instructions on a clean system
|
|
before distributing the binaries and corresponding source. Listing the
|
|
specific GNU/Linux distribution and any non-default packages required for the
|
|
build (ie. those installed before testing the instructions) in the build
|
|
instructions makes it easier for the end user to successfully build the
|
|
source release.
|
|
|
|
* There appeared to be several filesystem and kernel images, for different
|
|
hardware versions. It was unclear which one to install on the particular
|
|
device we received or how to install it, both of which should have been
|
|
mentioned in the README.
|
|
|
|
% FIXME: Below, we probably want to talk to them to add this, and also, be a
|
|
% bit more expansive.
|
|
|
|
* The above installation issue is mitigated by the availability of a web UI in
|
|
the product that performs firmware image installation. It would be best if
|
|
instructions like those at http://librecmc.org/librecmc/wiki?name=Tp+MR3020
|
|
were included in the README, as the user cannot be expected to infer that or
|
|
to find such a link.
|
|
|
|
\section{Root Filesystem and Kernel Installation}
|
|
|
|
As mentioned above, the specific steps for installing an updated firmware image
|
|
were not provided, but we found that the firmware update method available in the
|
|
web interface worked fine. In particular, we went to http://192.168.10.1/ in
|
|
our browser, then logged in and chose System -> Backup / Flash Firmware. From
|
|
there, we went to the "Flash new firmware image" section and selected the
|
|
librecmc-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v8-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin image in the
|
|
bin/ar71xx directory mentioned above. We chose the "v8" image because we found
|
|
our router said "v8.2" on the bottom and "sysupgrade" because we were doing a
|
|
firmware upgrade rather than a fresh install.
|
|
|
|
When we clicked "Flash image...", we were prompted to confirm the MD5 hash of
|
|
the image to flash and then clicked "Proceed" to flash the image. The process
|
|
took about one minute, at which point we were back at the web UI login screen.
|
|
We logged in and found that the Kernel Log section showed we were running the
|
|
new kernel.
|
|
|
|
We then logged in via SSH again and ran "busybox", which printed the new version
|
|
string, showing it was using our newly-compiled version (given the date).
|
|
|
|
\section{U-Boot Compilation}
|
|
|
|
* As mentioned above, we also found a "u-boot\verb0_0reflash" file at the top level of
|
|
the included source CD. We followed the instructions for compiling U-Boot,
|
|
which were fairly straight-forward. One modification would be to mention that
|
|
"\$U-BOOT\verb0_0SRC" referred to the extracted source directory, which was implied,
|
|
but should have been explicit.
|
|
* Additionally, we noticed that the included toolchain binaries, which were used
|
|
by the U-Boot compilation process by default, did not run on our system. In
|
|
particular, we received this error:
|
|
|
|
mips-librecmc-linux-uclibc-gcc.bin: /lib/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC`\verb0_02.14' not found (required by mips-librecmc-linux-uclibc-gcc.bin)
|
|
|
|
The complete log output (including the command used to run it) is here:
|
|
|
|
enforcement-case-studies\verb0_0log-output/thinkpenguin\verb0_0u-boot-build\verb0_0fail.log
|
|
|
|
* We found that by removing toolchain/bin and symlinking the toolchain built for
|
|
the filesystem/kernel above in its place, we were able to complete the U-Boot
|
|
build. Specifically, we symlinked toolchain/bin to:
|
|
|
|
../../staging\verb0_0dir/toolchain-mips\verb0_034kc\verb0_0gcc-4.6-linaro\verb0_0uClibc-0.9.33.2/bin
|
|
|
|
Output from the symlink operation can be found here:
|
|
|
|
enforcement-case-studies\verb0_0log-output/thinkpenguin\verb0_0u-boot-create\verb0_0symlink.log
|
|
|
|
* Ideally the pre-built toolchain binaries should not be included and a symlink
|
|
as mentioned above should be created by default, with a mention that the
|
|
U-Boot build depends on the previous build for its toolchain.
|
|
* After compilation completed successfully, we found a new U-Boot image in the
|
|
bin directory. The instructions explained how to install it on the device.
|
|
Output from the successful build (after the symlink was created) is here:
|
|
|
|
enforcement-case-studies\verb0_0log-output/thinkpenguin\verb0_0u-boot-finish\verb0_0build.log
|
|
|
|
\section{U-Boot Installation}
|
|
|
|
We obtained a serial cable along with our router, in order to complete the
|
|
U-Boot installation per the instructions in u-boot\verb0_0reflash. However, we were
|
|
only able to read data from the serial port; we were unable to interrupt the
|
|
boot process or access the U-Boot console to complete the U-Boot re-flash. Here
|
|
are the steps we tried:
|
|
|
|
* We found the serial cable included was a USB serial adapter that had a male
|
|
USB type A connector on one end and 4 female jumper wires at the other end.
|
|
These female jumper wires were red, black, white, and green.
|
|
* The instructions did not specify how to connect these wires, but we were able
|
|
to determine this in part using the "v8.4" image (close to our "v8.2" router)
|
|
at \url{http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/tp-link/tl-wr841nd#serial.console} . Aside from
|
|
power and ground (red and black), we did have to guess which of the wires was
|
|
RX and TX. By experimentation we found that green was RX and white was TX.
|
|
When we tried the other way, we received no data to our serial console at boot
|
|
time.
|
|
* We did have to use the included jumper pin gender changer with the USB serial
|
|
adapter, which we put through the holes on the router's mainboard and then
|
|
connected to the USB serial adapter. The fit was fairly loose so it would be
|
|
nice if future router versions included a tighter gender changer or (ideally)
|
|
had the jumper pins soldered onto the board to begin with (so no gender
|
|
changer would be required).
|
|
* We used 115200 8N1 as our serial console settings (with no hardware or
|
|
software flow control). This was tested with both the minicom and screen
|
|
commands. We found that if we connected all 4 wires on the USB serial adapter
|
|
that the router would start without additional power and our console would
|
|
receive the startup messages. We could replicate the same behavior by
|
|
omitting the power cable from the USB serial adapter (red wire) and connecting
|
|
the main power adapter to the router instead.
|
|
* While we did see the U-Boot and kernel boot logs in our serial console, we
|
|
were unable to interrupt the boot process as u-boot\verb0_0reflash indicated we
|
|
should. We suspect this is a misconfiguration of our serial console, but it's
|
|
unclear exactly how it is misconfigured, as we were able to receive data fine
|
|
(we just couldn't send data to the router).
|
|
* As a result, we were unable to complete the U-Boot installation test. We did
|
|
appreciate that installation instructions were included, though these
|
|
instructions should be updated to include more specifics about connecting the
|
|
serial cable. Since ThinkPenguin does have the option to ship a serial
|
|
adapter with the router, it would be helpful if instructions specific to that
|
|
adapter were included, as the wiring configuration one should use was unclear.
|
|
* Additionally, instructions for removing the router's case should be included.
|
|
We found that the two screws that needed removal to open the case were hidden
|
|
underneath rubber feet on the case. Indicating which feet need removal to
|
|
unscrew the case would be helpful. The instructions should also note that the
|
|
case needs to be carefully separated once the screws are removed; it
|
|
effectively snaps apart, but care must be taken to avoid breaking the plastic
|
|
fasteners that keep the case together after the screws are removed.
|
|
|
|
\section{Firmware Comparison}
|
|
|
|
To ensure that the CCS did indeed correspond to the firmware that was shipped on
|
|
the router, we compared the firmware image that we built using the above steps
|
|
with the filesystem we found on the device itself. The comparison steps we used
|
|
were:
|
|
|
|
* Extract the filesystem from the image we built by running find-firmware.pl
|
|
from https://gitorious.org/gpl-compliance-tools/gpl-compliance-scripts on
|
|
librecmc-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr841n-v8-squashfs-factory.bin from the bin/ar71xx
|
|
directory mentioned above (we noticed that our router said "Ver:8.2" on the
|
|
bottom). Then run squashfs4.2/squashfs-tools/bat-unsquashfs42 from
|
|
bat-extratools (at http://www.binaryanalysis.org/en/content/show/download )
|
|
on the resulting morx0.squash and use the filesystem in the new squashfs-root
|
|
directory for comparison.
|
|
* Login to the web interface (at http://192.168.10.1/ ) from a computer that is
|
|
connected to the router.
|
|
* Set a password using the provided link at the top (the UI warns that no
|
|
password is set and asks the user to change it).
|
|
* Login to the router via SSH, using the root user and the password we just set.
|
|
* Compare representative directory listings and binaries to ensure the set of
|
|
included files (on the router) is similar to those found in the firmware image
|
|
we created (whose contents are now in the local squashfs-root directory). In
|
|
particular, we did the following comparisons:
|
|
** List the /bin folder ("ls -l /bin") and confirm the list of files is the same
|
|
and that the file sizes are similar.
|
|
** Check the "strings" output of /bin/busybox to confirm it was similar in both
|
|
places (similar number of lines and content of lines). One cannot directly
|
|
compare the binaries because the slight compilation variations will cause
|
|
some bits to be different.
|
|
** Do the above two steps for /lib/modules, /usr/bin, and other directories with
|
|
a significant number of binaries.
|
|
** To check that the kernel is sufficiently similar, compare the "dmesg" output
|
|
both before and after flashing the new firmware. The kernel version string
|
|
should be similar, but should have a different build date and user@host
|
|
indicator. The kernel binary itself is not easily accessible from an SSH
|
|
login, but may be retrievable using the U-Boot console (the start address of
|
|
the kernel in flash appears to be 0x9F000000, based on the u-boot\verb0_0reflash
|
|
instructions). We were not able to verify this, due to the serial connection
|
|
issues (see above section on U-Boot installation).
|
|
|
|
\section{Minor Infractions}
|
|
|
|
As mentioned above, there were a few minor infractions. These made it slightly
|
|
difficult to complete the build and installation without additional context, but
|
|
did not make the build impossible to complete without more information, such as
|
|
missing source code for kernel modules or depending on a specific cross-compiler
|
|
but not mentioning which one or, better yet, including its source code, which
|
|
are both more problematic infractions. These minor infractions were:
|
|
|
|
% FIXME: clarify seriousness of no install instructions; lack of clarity in
|
|
% which version to install could be more problematic
|
|
|
|
* Not mentioning how to extract the source tarball and then where to run the
|
|
"make" command.
|
|
* Not mentioning how to install the kernel and root filesystem on the device;
|
|
this is the biggest of these 3 issues but a bit less troublesome than it would
|
|
otherwise have been since the web-based firmware update process is well-known.
|
|
* Using pre-built toolchain binaries that don't work on all systems instead of
|
|
the ones that are built in a separate step, but not moved to the right place.
|
|
We were able to build corresponding toolchain binaries from source (though
|
|
for a slightly different target) so this is not a severe toolchain violation
|
|
of the type we normally find (where toolchain binaries are provided without
|
|
source). However, including instructions to use the built toolchain binaries
|
|
instead would be best, or alternatively specifying the distribution on which
|
|
the toolchain binaries must be run (to avoid being unable to run them as we
|
|
were).
|
|
|
|
|
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
% COMMENT OUT THIS CHAPTER.
|
|
% FIXME: is this material moot now that we include the compliance guide?
|
|
% Either way, it should be merged into compliance guide.
|
|
%\chapter{Good Practices for Compliance}
|
|
|
|
Generally, from the experience of GPL enforcement, we glean the following
|
|
general practices that can help in GPL compliance for organizations that
|
|
distribute products based on GPL'd software:
|
|
|
|
\begin{itemize}
|
|
|
|
\item Talk to your software engineers and ask them where they got the
|
|
components they use in the products they build. Find out if GPL'd
|
|
components are present.
|
|
|
|
\item Teach your engineering staff to pay attention to license documents.
|
|
Give them easy-to-follow policies to get approval for using a Free
|
|
Software component.
|
|
|
|
\item Build a ``Free Software Licensing'' committee that handles requests
|
|
and questions about the GPL and other Free Software licenses.
|
|
|
|
\item Add ``What parts of your products are under the GPL or other Free
|
|
Software licenses?'' to your checklist of questions to ask when you
|
|
consider mergers, acquisitions, or joint ventures.
|
|
|
|
\item Encourage your engineers to participate collaboratively with GPL'd
|
|
software development. The more knowledge about the Free Software world
|
|
your organization has, the better equipped it is to deal with this
|
|
rapidly changing field.
|
|
|
|
\item When someone points out a potential GPL violation in one of your
|
|
products, do not assume the product line is doomed. The GPL is not a virus;
|
|
merely having GPL'd code in one part of a product does not necessarily
|
|
mean that every related product must also be GPL'd. And, even if some
|
|
software needs to be released that was not before, the product will
|
|
surely survive. In FSF's enforcement efforts, we have not yet
|
|
seen a product line die because source was released to customers in
|
|
compliance with the GPL.
|
|
|
|
\end{itemize}
|
|
|
|
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|
|
% LocalWords: proprietarize redistributors sublicense yyyy Gnomovision EULAs
|
|
% LocalWords: Yoyodyne FrontPage improvers Berne copyrightable Stallman's GPLs
|
|
% LocalWords: Lessig Lessig's UCITA pre PDAs CDs reshifts GPL's Gentoo glibc
|
|
% LocalWords: TrollTech administrivia LGPL's MontaVista OpenTV Mitek Arce DVD
|
|
% LocalWords: unprotectable protectable Unfreedonia chipset CodeSourcery Iqtel
|
|
% LocalWords: impermissibly Bateman faire minimis Borland uncopyrightable Mgmt
|
|
% LocalWords: franca downloadable Bortez Bortez's
|
|
% LocalWords: Slashdot sublicensed Vigorien Vigorien's Haxil Polgara
|
|
% LocalWords: Thesulac Polgara's Haxil's Thesulac's SDK CD's
|