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Sony Violating GPL?
hub writes "One of the pilot-link main developers states on Advogato and on his site that Sony is violating GPL by distributing binary only version of POSE that has been customized for their Clie (their new Palm compatible device)."
I'm a registered Sony PDA developer, so I checked out this claim.
It is true that Sony released a new POSE for the new Clie.
However, the POSE used for the previous Clie is still available, AS IS ITS SOURCE!
Looking at the new emulator, it was just posted 2 days ago (5/1/01). My guess is that they'll release the source real soon now, but it probably wasn't quite ready for prime time just yet.
Personally, I'm glad they released the new emulator and ROMs in a timely fashion. Sure, they are required to release the new source as well, but before we jump all over them, let's give them a few days at the very least.
Yes, there is a big difference. TiVo provides the source and patches to the GPLed programs that they use in their products -- you can download them off their web site. And TiVo doesn't require you to agree to a license saying that you cannot modify the GPLed programs.
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
http://www.tivo.com/linux/index.html gives you the source code for their modifications to the Kernel. No violation there.
-- Hulver's site
There is basically zero chance that Sony would try to get the GPL overturned in court. The reason why is simple. If they go to court and get the license declared invalid, they no longer have any rights to distribute the source of binary at all! This is why the GPL will never be tested in court. They will either comply, or they will stop distributing the emulator. But they won't go to court.
Think about it. If not for the privilges granted to them by the GPL, they would be committing criminal copyright violations by redistributing the code or the binary! You would have to have the dumbest lawyers in the world to trade up from a civil suit (violation of a license agreement) to a criminal copyright violation. Duh. The GPL will never end up in court. Unlike a normal software license which only takes rights away, the GPL grants rights which Sony is relying on to redistribute the code. The same is true for every company which is redistributing GPL'd code.
Is there anything in slashcode that doubles the number of moderators when "GPL" and "Violation" appear in the same article title? If not there sure should be.
Just a warning people, get your facts straight, count to 10 and think about what you're doing before you do something about this. The author of this diary had a really unfortunate encounter with a really annoying Sony employee who most likely doesn't represent the official company's position. Unless you're in a position to verify that there has been a GPL violation don't go off flaming Sony. If you can prove it then follow the steps on the GNU site.
If indeed Sony is violating the GPL, maybe we can convince IBM (who is apparently all about Linux these days) to put their money where their mouth is and give some of the financial muscle needed to take on another huge corporation.
Looking at the new emulator, it was just posted 2 days ago (5/1/01). My guess is that they'll release the source real soon now, but it probably wasn't quite ready for prime time just yet.
How can the binary be ready before the source code? Is that some kind of temporal engineering there or something?
What's your damage, Heather?
It's not even as simple as that. They're also imposing a EULA on the binary which is completely incompatible with the GPL. Even if they did give you the source, if that EULA is attatched anywhere (source, binary), they're in total violation of the GPL.
When a company violates the GPL, do we:
1. Politely inform them of the infraction, wait for a response; if they continue to violate, take it up legally.
2. Show up at their front door with torches and shotguns
3. Spam their PR department and the company president to death.
4. Curse them out to all hell on Slashdot, ineffectively
5. Sue the bastards!
6. Cowboy Neal
... seriously, if all you people are serious about the GPL (I'll take a neutral stance on the GPL itself), for God's sakes, get a real organization together to handle these things, so that there's always someone to turn to when there is a GPL violation. You know, some professional and legal experts to help the cause out.
And posting the "news" on Slashdot is a bad way of handling it, since now Sony is going to be defamed and disparaged about 50 million times for something that may be non-existent, innocent, or an issue dealt with expediently. What if one manager made the decision to evilly include a GPL'ed program in the product, and when the company found out, they fired the manager and changed the product to be GPL compliant? Then will the Slashdot community remove or apologize for all the flaming that will follow this? I doubt it.
You're telling me that you think that because some application developer that you meet on a plane, makes a comment that the company doesn't care about licensing issues, that Sony's policy is to violate the GPL.
Someone involved in the project should contact Palm and Sony in order to get this resolved. Give Sony a chance to fix this before you get too up in arms. Mistakes happen.
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Free Mac Mini
Not true. The original copyright applies as well as the new copyright. In order for the downstream person to use the derivative work, they must have the rights both to the derivative and original.
I mean, can a what to do when you see a possible GPL violation link from GNU itself be clearer than anything else? Just read it, people. C'mon.
Anyone else get the feeling this guy thinks he is "above" everyone else?
So as I'm sitting here working and playing with my Palm, people tend to whip theirs out and play with it, as if to say "Hey, I'm one of you, look, I have a palm too..!"
No, you're not one of me. You could never be one of me.
Then he goes on to show and tell his huge collection of handhelds in a similar manner. Later he brags about how he fixed the guys week old problem in 60 seconds.
Is this really the type of guy we want to trust a secondhand story from?
Yup.. and you can go get the source at a few places.
try...
http://ps2dev.sourceforge.net/index2.html
and
http://www.anarchists.co.uk/html/psx2.html
also.. for more (non-gpl) psx2 coding fun try...
http://www.napalm-x.com/~duke/
Rats would be more funny if they could fart.
Christ, was I the only one hoping this egomaniac would store his attitude in the fucking overhead bin?
I have a hunch m$ is laying the groundwork for just such and assault on Open Source. It really has been a surprise to see Alchin and Mundie deign to discredit Open Source. There's got to be a reason, more than fear of competition... what's up their sleeve?
At least Sony is demonstrably giving back, by using Linux and GPL code. An endorsement, if you think about it, from a company which has a heck of a record on proprietary technology.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar