Possible GPL Violation from Compaq UPDATED

An anonymous reader wrote in to say "I was having a look at ThinkGeek's 6 Gb MP3 jukebox, and was interested to see that the software is Linux-based. There's a link at the bottom of the page: download Linux source. Interestingly, this link requires I 'sign' a license agreement with Compaq before downloading the source code. The license, amongst other (scary) things, says: CUSTOMER acknowledges and agrees that COMPAQ owns all rights, title and interests in and to the SOFTWARE and all Intellectual Property Rights therein." That can't be right, can it? What's going on here? Is it a simple case of Compaq needing reminding about the ground rules concerning Linux distribution? Perhaps they have not made any kernel modifications, and this license is for their application software? " Update: 09/13 05:16 PM by CT : we screwed this one up. The link is somewhat misleading since it says its a link to Linux Source, but its not actually the linux source, its just some code that runs on linux. Stop flaming please. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Comments

Slashdot or National Enquirer?

[zpengo]

I hope the editors actually read the comments that are posted to stories like this. We all love /. or we wouldn't be here, but sometimes we have to keep these guys in check so that our beloved news source doesn't degenerate into a gossip rag or crack journalism showcase. The editors of Slashdot have a huge influence on the Open Source community (and geek community in general), and while it's fun to have that one-man website feel, I think that they have a certain responsibility to the community. It comes with fame.

To the wonderful folks of /. : Please please please do a little investigating before posting stuff like this! Even the National Enquirer probably calls Brad Pitt once in a while before posting a story about him having a love child with G. W. Bush.

Turn off the flame-throwers

[Platinum Dragon]

I downloaded the source and poked through it a bit.

For one thing, the software itself is GPL'd - a copy is included with the source. For another, one file - cpqpjb.c - #includes several header files in the kernel source. So the software itself is clear.

It simply looks as if the file was made available for download the same way other chunks of Compaq software are offered, and no one remembered the legal boilerplate people have to agree to for most software.

A simple e-mail to Compaq legal oughta do the trick; it's only a minor error.

Re:probably an oversight

[Alan Cox]

I would tend to agree. I've had similar experiences beating some book vendors into putting the right label on their CD-ROMs in the back of books. They had boilerplate they had used for years and suddenely finding it didnt work for a project caused them a lot of chaos.

Once it percolated to the right layer the lawyers generated new boilerplate and they now slap that on anything containing other people's software.

But yes they should be more careful

Alan