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IP Theft in the Linux Kernel
"They just took my code and filed off the copyright" said Søren. "This is clearest with the two header files hptraid.h and pdcraid.h. Compare these with FreeBSD's ata-raid.h, and just look at the similarities." And it's true that these two header files certainly look like a chopped up copy of the FreeBSD header, after a quick search-and-replace. "The reading of the RAID config from the disks is their own code, but is clearly "inspired" from our code," said Søren, "but that's encouraged by the license. It's the verbatim use of the other code without retaining the copyright that's the problem."
ata-raid.h, and the other files, are copyright Søren, and released under the three clause BSD license, which includes the restriction "Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice". So using these files, or significant portions of them, in your own code, without retaining the copyright information, as has happened here, is prohibited.
You may be thinking "This is only a couple of header files, what's the big deal?". As Søren says "The problem here is that the structures in the headers is the whole story. That info tells how you read the proprietary struct off the disks, and was reverse engineered and documented by me after a lot of effort." Søren's intellectual property is tied up in those files.
Right now, Søren is in discussions with the authors of the Linux ATA drivers (employed by RedHat) to ensure that his copyright notice is returned to these and other files, and to ensure that this situation does not recur. And it is hoped that an amicable solution can be reached.
What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. What goes around, comes around. etc. etc. etc.
Best Slashdot Co
Man, as a FreeBSD user, I am insulted. After all, isn't you Linux guys who are always bashing people who don't preach the GNU way?
Doesn't suprise me one bit.
The Gov'ment wuz rite! All yew Lienucks yewsers ahr theeves and tearerists! They shewd lock yew up aynd fergit abowt yew!
You're using her as bait, Master!
Aren't we always being told that the good thing about BSD is we can use the code anywhere we like. Well somebody has. Now how do you feel about your BSD license?
Jesus, it gets deader by the day.
How can you steal from a BSD and still have an
OS that fucked up? They must have changed
something. Linux sucks ass.
I work as a consultant for several fortune 500 companies, and I think I can shed a little light on the climate of the open source community at the moment. I believe that part of the reason that open source based startups are failing left and right is not an issue of marketing as it's commonly believed but more of an issue of the underlying technology.
I know that that's a strong statement to make, but I have evidence to back it up! At one of the major corps(5000+ employees) that I consult for, we wanted to integrate Linux into our server pool. The allure of not having to pay any restrictive licensing fees was too great to ignore. I reccomended the installation of several boxes running the new 2.4.9 kernel, and my hopes were high that it would perform up to snuff with the Windows 2k boxes which were(and still are!) doing an AMAZING job at their respective tasks of serving HTTP requests, DNS, and fileserving.
I consider myself to be very technically inclined having programmed in VB for the last 8 years doing kernel level programming. I don't believe in C programming because contrary to popular belief, VB can go just as low level as C and the newest VB compiler generates code that's every bit as fast. I took it upon myself to configure the system from scratch and even used an optimised version of gcc 3.1 to increase the execution speed of the binaries. I integrated the 3 machines I had configured into the server pool, and I'd have to say the results were less than impressive... We all know that linux isn't even close to being ready for the desktop, but I had heard that it was supposed to perform decently as a "server" based operating system. The 3 machines all went into swap immediately, and it was obvious that they weren't going to be able to handle the load in this "enterprise" environment. After running for less than 24 hours, 2 of them had experienced kernel panics caused by Bind and Apache crashing! Granted, Apache is a volunteer based project written by weekend hackers in their spare time while Microsft's IIS has an actual professional full fledged development team devoted to it. Not to mention the fact that the Linux kernel itself lacks any support for any type of journaled filesystem, memory protection, SMP support, etc, but I thought that since Linux is based on such "old" technology that it would run with some level of stability. After several days of this type of behaviour, we decided to reinstall windows 2k on the boxes to make sure it wasn't a hardware problem that was causing things to go wrong. The machines instantly shaped up and were seamlessly reintegrated into the server pool with just one Win2K machine doing more work than all 3 of the Linux boxes.
Needless to say, I won't be reccomending Linux/FSF to anymore of my clients. I'm dissappointed that they won't be able to leverege the free cost of Linux to their advantage, but in this case I suppose the old adage stands true that, "you get what you pay for." I would have also liked to have access to the source code of the applications that we're running on our mission critical systems; however, from the looks of it, the Microsoft "shared source" program seems to offer all of the same freedoms as the GPL.
As things stand now, I can understand using Linux in academia to compile simple "Hello World" style programs and learn C programming, but I'm afraid that for anything more than a hobby OS, Windows 98/NT/2K are your only choices.
thank you.
Fuck You, Asshole
After all, free software is inherently about theft of intellectual property. Why would you expect free software developers to be any more respectful of the rights of other free software developers than they are of the rights of companies that invest a lot of money in the development of proprietary software?
Right, and that wouldn't have been a copyright infringement since they wouldn't be trying to relicense or distribute the code. Someone should moderate you as the troll you are.
Actually, yes it does sound like a RedHat dev. Redhat is widely known to employ 3rd-rate computer science students, many from NCState which is nearby. Microsoft, on the other hand, has some of the most rigorous hiring procedures in the world. Turing Award winners work there; a Fields Medal winner works there. Work for MS for a few years, and you can work anywhere. Not so with Redhat.
They should. But they haven't.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
And they won't. But you and I both know that you're not as smart as you wish you were, and for now that will have to be enough
And now, it is time to finish it off for good.
Read on to see for why.
Following the tragedies in New York and Washington, once again, the elected powers ignore the best interests of the people and follow the path laid out to them by big business. How long will we sit idly by and allow our rights to be eroded? Once, America would justifiably claim to be 'land of the free'. Now, it seems that even European countries treat their citizens better - even the ones, like Britain, that have subjects instead.
I see much bravado on Slashdot, people looking for ways to stick it to the man, to hold on to their rights, individuality and pride. But I see no action. A misled few donate to the EFF, but what do the EFF do? They are just money-grubbing lawyers like any other. They retire to the Caribbean on the back of our ever-decreasing liberty.
Recently it has become apparant to me that the source of this inactivity is the BSD camp. It is ironic that the ones who so haughtily proclaim that their choice of software license is more free than all others do so little to protect our fundamental rights. Indeed, many of the big names in the BSD community have moved away from the home of freedom to Canada and other socialist backwaters. They don't care about liberty, that's why they ran away.
I have a suggestion to make. If current proposed legislation were to go through, perhaps effectively banning Open Source in the process, surely the 'most free' code should be the first to go? Perhaps, by 'sacrificing' the BSD code, the true Free code (that which is GPL'd) could be saved.
I have already written to my congressman with this proposal, and I strongly encourage all Free Software supporters to do the same. Remember, email is often ignored, so write. We cannot sit idly by while our rights are stripped from us. If you know where any BSD advocates live, it is your duty to alert the FBI, the CIA and the other protectors of our way of life. Only by their incarceration can our code (and theirs, that we have 'reclaimed') remain free and our dream alive.
Thank you.
Copyright 2001 Richard M. Stallman.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are permitted in any medium provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.
Exactly! Microsoft r0x0rs! w00t!
The BSD license is a license to steal IP. If the guy who is complaining because he owns the copyright then he souldn't have picked the BSD license. While Linux may make use of the code I can name two mega-corporations that use BSD code and make lots of money (in one case) without giving credit.
BSDer's why don't you GPL your code?
they bombed the pentigon...hahah.....
dont insulte the linux folk or they will mod you down.
Why was this guy looking into the Linux source code in the first place? Was he, say, stealing ideas?
Stop the flames. Of course he wasn't. What got lost in this story is one of the best aspects of open source programs: complete transparency. Microsoft may be using pieces of the Linux kernel inside its own programs and we'll never know. Ever.
If it was really a copy (we're talking about device drivers and it's very difficult to create original software to describe the same struct) then notice will be given that it was his software.
And another good aspect: this guys is a programmer that has created open source device drivers for FreeBSD. And he was looking into the Linux kernel sources. Probably looking for his own code (which would make him proud) or looking for the chance to help out fellow programmers or just to compare solutions and learn with it.
I'm sorry it happened but we should focus on what's good about this story:
Truth shall set you free.
Its free code, IP is bullshit that the Corporations like to have around so they can sue anybody they don't want to compete with. Soren be the big man and just say no big deal and move on. Unless it was slashdot that blew it out of proportion and you just told the ppl to slap your notice on it since they are using your code without trying to make a big deal about (in that case, shame on over zealous slashdot writers!!!)
This is my sig. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
in the Linux kernel source. I bet he was trying to steal code for FreeBSD!
Moron.
That's a well known fact faggot.
What the fuck was this freebsd fag reading the linux kernel for? looking for some tasty tidbits to steal yourself? huh fucko?
Of course, the really funny thing about this matter is that M$ uses BSD code all over the place. It doesn't violate the license, but you'd never know. They might use GPL code, but you'd never know(without Black Magic(tm)). But I'd bet they'd never use GPL'd code, cause it is already implemented in BSD under a freer license and is better stuff anyhoo. I am putting the Drag Racing togs on as you type.
Comparing it to Windows will be a moot point, since El Dorado is going to have a 40% larger code base than XP.
This is unacceptable. Again, open source is all about sharing code so we don't have to keep reinventing the wheel, but as was said earlier, we MUST give due credit.
As much as I love Linux and prefer it to everything else, I think 2.4.10 should be boycotted. Nobody should download, use, or install 2.4.10 until a patched version is released that gives proper credit to the BSD people for the code it used. I'd even be willing to jump immediately to a 2.4.11 release, even if it is only minor issues.
The Linux kernel version 2.4.10 violates the very ideals that it was created and lives by. Ideals that even Microsoft of all people adhered to when using code from the community. It's a black mark on the kernel's history.
Why bother.
Yet another crippling bombshell hit th beleaguered *BSD community when last month IDC confirmed that *BSD accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of ll servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as further exemplified by failing dead last in th recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood. FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.
Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick nd its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *SD is to survive t all it will be among OS hobbyist dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For ll practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
*BSD is dying
Soren could have just asked the Linux folks to add the notice, which they would probably have gladly done. BSD even gives commercial developers permission to distribute the code in binary only form, so why all this fuzz about Linux?
I suspect these serious accusations from the BSD folks are sour grapes: Linux is succeeding wildly while BSD is at best hanging on. So, even minor issues like these are used in attepts to tarnish the Linux image. My recommendation? Add a short notice to the Linux sources "portions of this file derived from ...". And my recommendation to the BSD folks: resolve such issues quietly. This kind of mud slinging only backfires and tarnishes your own reputation.
Linux just lost ALL of their brownie points in one fell swoop. I hope this puts RedHat out of business. You stinking stupid thieves!
Who knows what other code RedHat has plagiarized! Does it stop here?
We should spill the blood of these plagiarists!
/.
I switched to Red Hat from Slackware eons ago because the install was less tedious. Slack has since remedied the problem (Thanks Patrick!) and Red Hat's install has gotten all GUI and bloated, but it'd be a lot of work to switch all those servers back now... so I haven't.
However, if Red Hat's programmers can't give Soren whatever recognition he is due, I will consider that to be a valid reason to switch distros to whoever is willing to do the job right.
And I always PAY for my distro CDs. Because that's how we keep the distributors in business in my opinion. Since the CDs are not machine-restricted, it's not like the cost is unreasonable anyway.
So, Red Hat, what's your take? You guys have usually done right by me. Y'all gonna fix this?
--Charlie
(who HATES the BSD license, incidentally - Go GPL!)