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GPL Violation, Microtest's DiskZerver

Posted by Cliff on from the handling-and-rectifying-licensing-snafus dept.

Early this week, brtb submitted an eye-opening write up which may end up as the classic example of a large-scale GPL violation. Microtest's DiskZerver, a NAS device designed to handle CDs, would seem to be a sharp product, except it's based on software licenced under the GPL and potentially other free-software licenses as well. Of course, you would never know this, because Microtest never mentioned it, however that didn't stop Microtest from manufacturing and then marketing the device before it sold it off to another company. DiskZerver's new company xStore, which was unaware of the licensing issues, was notified about them, and this impending article. They have yet to comment. In situations like this, what should a company do to bring such a glaring GPL violation back into compliance?

Slashdot reader brtb reports:

About a year ago my employer, a local high school, purchased a couple MicroTest "DiskZervers," network-attached-storage boxes designed to cache CD images for LAN usage. We were mainly Netware-and-Win95 at that time, and the Zervers performed flawlessly in that configuration. But problems began when the district IT department made the decision to switch us over to an NT-domain setup. The Zervers, even with their advertised "Domain Integration" support, didn't seem to like this too well, so I dug a little deeper... imagine my surprise when I found out the boxes are actually embedded 486's with Linux and a whole slew of other GPL'ed software, mentioned nowhere in the manuals or on the accompanying software CD.

Apparently, Microtest (NAS division since sold to XStore) put together a mess of GPL software - a modified Linux kernel 2.0.27, Samba 1.9.x-ALPHA (!!!), the MARS_NWE netware emulator, and GNU C libraries (libc5), among others, stuffed them on a flash chip in a drive-bay-size embedded 486-based computer, and sold it as their "DiscZerver" product line. They also used some non-GPL packages, including Apache and Netatalk (macintosh server). Nothing wrong with their methods, but there's plenty wrong in their implementation.

The web interface and proprietary Windows front-end, the only given methods of configuring the device, refer to the various services generically, like "Web server," "SMB server," "NCP server," etc. - there's no mention anywhere, even in the manual, of the actual programs being used. Of course along with this is no accompanying source code or even the offer to provide any, as the GPL requires.

I can't even get any useful tech support from this company, much less someone to ask about getting the source code for the software and whatever modifications they made, which includes a flash file-system driver ("yaffs" - I think MicroTest wrote it, as I can't find any info on it) for the kernel. I did manage to hack out the hidden-from-customers root password; with that I found a shell prompt (Stand-alone Shell v1.0 - GPL? dunno) which only increased my determination as I could see exactly what programs they managed to steal, strip out identifying info, and use without credit.

I did contact the FSF with the limited information I had before I got shell access, and they did confirm the existence of a GPL violation, but were unable to do anything specific as they do not hold copyright on any of the programs I knew of at the time (and actually suggested I post to Slashdot to get some answers). xStore itself has not returned my emails or phone call. I have another e-mail in to the FSF, now that I know the machine includes glibc1.

So, right now I have a nice little piece of hardware, some mis-compiled (I think) software, and no idea what to do next. At the very least, I learned that my usual policy of disassembling and analyzing any new hardware we get is the right one; of course that doesn't help all the LAN users that need access to these CDs. I'd be happy if I could just get the code so I can fix SMBd/NMBd to work properly. I've thought about trying to make my own really-small distro to load on, but it's not really worth my time - I could just load the cached CD images (thankfully just standard .ISO's) off the Zerver's CD-storage hard drive into my other Linux server, compile and install Samba correctly (works great if you do it right) , and get on with life... but I really shouldn't have to do either. Any ideas?

38 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. fp? by Kencordia · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    hmm...

    --
    "Forty-two," said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.
  2. first1 by theneo · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    !whee hehe

  3. EGAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    My rectal area is torn and googling blood.

    1. Re:EGAD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      You misspelled "blod", or do you really pronounce it "blued"?

  4. w00t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I got the first post!

    Pr0n K1ng

    P0st1ng anonymously to preserve his precious karma, and I'm at school.

  5. We are the trolls of doom ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    We are the evil forces to come from the land of goatse to destroy the internet and cleanse all software from open source. We are the dark servants of M$. Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha !

  6. JonKatz is Rob Malda! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    JonKatz is Rob Malda>
    By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent

    WASHINGTON (AP) -- George W. Bush, web master of the famous JonKatz is gay [isgay.com] website has revealed that through private investigation he has found out that JonKatz, is in fact Rob Malda. Rob, maintainer of the famous Communist software website Slashdot [slashdot.org] said only, "Well, I guess this means everyone know I'm gay then."

  7. GPL again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Not Again :)

    GPL's the cool.

    (FP)

  8. No you can do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Losers I liked to see you try and win this cases

    1. Re:No you can do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I think the fact that the Slashdot editors still have no idea of the difference between "than" and "then" or "its" and "it's" places in context your foolish mockery of an obviously non-native English speaker.

      As a grammar Nazi, I will only point out your sentence beginning with "then", your incorrect spelling of "the" and your incorrect capitalisation of "god" ( I'm an atheist ) to emphasise my point.

      Editors: Correct my mitsakes, mod this down as off-topic but PURRRRLEEEASE learn the fscking syntax of this particular language.

  9. Wanna build an atomic bomb? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Lack of knowledge has never been an obstacle to any nation in developing nuclear weapons. The problem is in obtaining the necessary tools and materials. Nothing I say here could be of any interest or assistance to a nation pursuing a nuclear weapons program. Admittedly, the situation with respect to terrorist acquisition of weapons is a bit different. But even here, actual weapon construction requires a type of information I do not provide, and most importantly it requires access to the proper materials. Preventing access to these materials is the only way of providing security from the spread nuclear weapons. Suppressing discussion of unclassified or public domain information does not provide any measure of security. It provides instead only a potentially dangerous illusion of security.

    This highly detailed and accurate FAQ is available here for downloading.

  10. slashdot SUCKS by dieragheads · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    slashdot SUCKS 20 secs after hitting reply MY ASS

  11. Re:First Logged In Post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    Dude

    You rule



    Your comment violated the postercomment compression filter. Comment aborted
    You are not logged in. You can login now using the convenient form below, or Create an Account. Posts without proper registration are posted as Anonymous Coward

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  12. Why post on Slashdot? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    If you asked the FSF again, why not give them a chance to deal with it?

    They have had good luck in the past.

  13. What you can do: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I have banned all the employees from my IRC channel. I also banned the Taliban and Osama bin Laden from my IRC chat room as well.

    Think global, act local.

  14. Re:Another reason why the GPL sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What? Why? C'mon, if you're going to troll, try a bit harder at least.

  15. Re:Wazzzzup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Not much. It is kind of cold out here. Not quite winter though. If I log in, then everyone else that uses this computer will have access to my precious /. accounts, so I will not login. The fascists that run the IT department here have made it impossible for us to run programs that have been downloaded off of the net. So I cannot run VNC. If I could, I could be surfing using the comfort of Linux between classes. But I can't. Oh well, I'll save that rant for another day.

    Did you see the story that I got on the front page? That was frickin' awesome! Rock on Taco!

    Oh well, my data structures class is calling me.

    Pr0n K1ng

    Posting anonymously so that none of his class mates will get access to his precious /. accounts.

  16. Re:you may have broken the license agreement.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    God, you karma whore. If you knew the first thing about what you were talking about, you'd know that you can't use a shrink-wrap to restrict sub-licensees of software you've licensed under the GPL, or else you yourself lose the license to have made the copies.

    In other words, go back to school for a while more before rejoining the real world, your kind makes the rest of us look bad.

  17. Re:Thanks d00d! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Dude, how do I become a troll?

  18. Re:Wazzzzup? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Can't vncserver accept HTTP and send HTML embedding a VNC client applet?

  19. mod this up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    the parent to this post is at Score:2 it deserves at least anther mod point

  20. Re:Thanks d00d! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    U just did!

  21. gpl cop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    dude, don't you have anything better to do rather then playing gpl cop? isn't there a star trek convention in town or something?

  22. Re:Thanks d00d! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    But I want to be a pro! I want to be an internationally recognized Troll...

    I want even bin Ladin to phear my trolling skillz.

  23. Re:RTFL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You people are fucking hypocrites.

  24. Re:Did they modify/redistribute, or just distribut by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    oops, "section 1" at the end should say "section 3"...

  25. Re:who's behind it? the plot revealed! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Holy shit, that took me a minute to grok...

    That's freaking funny!!!

  26. Re:you may have broken the license agreement.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    flamebait THAT back to -1

  27. Imagine by lowieken · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people living for today...

    Imagine there's no countries, It isnt hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, No religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace...

    Imagine no possesions, I wonder if you can, No need for greed or hunger, A brotherhood of man, imane all the people Sharing all the world...

    You may say Im a dreamer, but Im not the only one, I hope some day you'll join us, And the world will live as one.

  28. Re:Nothing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What's the point of trolling? Why don't you just go hang yourself and do us all a favour, retard?

  29. I changed my subject from "Ah ah ah" to this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Troll!!

    Gezundheit.

    The extra lines in this post are meant to defeat the postercomment compression filter. Hopefully it won't be aborted this time. Ba ha ha!

  30. Kill them all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    ...and let Richard Stallman sort them out.

  31. This is all *NIX stuff. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    So who really gives a flying fuck? Not me.

  32. Re:Criminal Proceedings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Shut the fuck up.
    Your stupid ass couldn't even code "hello world" if you life depended on it yet you come up with this bullshit.

  33. Re:I Disagree by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    You are acting like a fucking commercial lawyer for MS.
    Are you sure you are on right web site ?
    You know this whole thing was supposed to be about freedom from legal bullshit.
    I am left with no option but to call you a fucking hypocrite.

  34. +5 Funny! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    For God's sake, mod parent up!

  35. Re:You mixed Stallmans views on Copyright and Pate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    NO that was the printer DRIVER, not anything
    embedded in the printer! DUH!

  36. Re:you may have broken the license agreement.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    How can you license code you don't even own?