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MusicCity's Morpheus violating GPL
dotslash writes "The new Morpheus Preview Edition client [download.com] is actually just a fork of Gnucleus an open source GPLd Gnutella client. Upon installation Morpheus PE displays the GPL and asks the user to accept. It is currently being distributed without source in violation of article 3 of the GPL. Gnucleus developers are not too happy about this.
This Morpheus client is being downloaded by thousands of frustrated Morpheus users who have been cutoff the FastTrack/Kazaa network and are now migrating to Gnutella. The violation of the GPL is blatant and will also be the first glimpse of the GPL for many of these new users. It seems like the executives at MusicCity have decided that they prefer free 'as in beer' not 'as in speech.'" Update: 03/03 05:10 GMT by T : It looks like the source is available now, gpl.txt and all.
They don't have to post the source..They just have to make it available.. GPL does not require source to be distributed at the same time as binary (although you invoke the third party rule if it is not)
--- Liberty in our Lifetime
Actually, the source for Morpheous is available. If you just look down at the bottom of the menu on the left you see a link called "Source Code." If you click on that link it lets you download the source.
I downloaded the Morpheus client just after the previous story about it changing to the gnutella network and there was a link on the front page to the source code for the new client. I currently have a file "mpesrc1.zip" sitting on my desktop which contains source code. Admittedly the zip file then contains a folder called gnucleus1 so it may be the original, unmodified code rather than the morpheus code. Anyone else see this link or have the ability to analyse the code?
A quick download and scan of the readme.txt file shows that it is indeed Gnucleus source. The GPL violation here is merely in the advertizement -- the source is quite throughly public; I'm sure the flaw will be corrected soon.
"Evil company X is threatening to restrict our rights! Let's all get together to stop--OOOH! SHINEY!!!" -- AC
Kazaa came out with an update for their client a few weeks back. The way that the updates for Kazaa and Morpheus work is that they slowly spread because whenever you connect to a node that has the updated version you are forced to update. Then if anyone happens to connect to you they have to update.
So Kazaa made an updated version and let their updated version spread to all Kazaa users. Then either by a preset date or some sort of signal they activated the one "feature" of this update: to give all Morpheus users the bad version error. Really underhanded.
Right now sometimes on Morpheus you might still connect, depending on if you are lucky and connect to another Morpheus node, but you are only in contact with a small part of the network.
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Section 3 makes it clear. The downloaded file does not need to include source. But if it doesn't, then it must include a written offer of source for no more than the cost of distribution. (Said offer can be from you, or else instructions for whereever you got it.)
Just having a link to the source on the original site might be infringment with the letter, if not necessarily the spirit, of the GPL. What you are distributed must be accompanied with source-code or the offer, and the link on the site doesn't accompany the download...
But the Gnucleus team is really happy with Morpheus. The "news rant" i think was due to the MusicCity attitude. They didn't even the contact Gnucleus team.
But they indeed are very proud, and happy. Take a look:
http://www.gnucleus.com/general/clones.html
Here's the text:
"Morpheus: Also a post-Gnucleus 1.0 clone. Wow, this was unexpected, 50 million users and they switch over to the Gnucleus engine... uhm.. welcome aboard!"
unfinished: (adj.)
This is well-covered in the previous slashdot story today. They're using a newer version of the gnutella protocol, one which allows for special "super-peers" which function similar to the supernodes on the KaZaa network. This means things should scale relatively nicely, theoretically. Go read the lengthy discussion earlier today, or just go read up on the recent versions of the gnutella protocol.
not really the spirit... I downloaded the source, and even rebooted into windows to give it a whirl. It's painful. When you first open the open the workspace in visual studio, you have many open files, and they have neglected to include all of the resources necessary for a build. (All of the source seems to be there, but icons and bitmaps are missing... VS won't even start a build without them.) To be fair to the Morpheus folks, though, it looks like they might have simply forgotten a directory in their zip file. I checked Gnucleus out of CVS and copied the "res" directory from their checkout to the Morpheus directory. It still didn't build, but I got the same (mis-)behavior with both projects. Morpheus clearly was in a hurry to get this source file up; the archive is a mess. Absolute paths (like d:\gnucleus\morpheuspe.exe) are hard-coded into the workspace, and the changelog isn't even updated. I'm too tired to play with it more tonight, but it looks like the essentials (for license compliance) are there, just in a shitty package.
.sig: file not found
followed by the rest of the GPL.
You are just plain wrong, sorry.
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
As far as I know the source code has been available from the music city website since the beginning of the availability Morpheus's New Preview Version. (I was one of the first ppl to download it) No GPL violation ever took place, I guess it took them some hours to add a link to the source (albeit not a very prominent link)
You do not recall correctly, Anonymous Coward.
giFT started out as a FastTrack client, but changed to OpenFT once FastTrack locked them out. And they've been that way ever since--and now over a terabyte of files are being traded therein at this very moment. Small potatoes compared to KaZaa, but it's a start.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Not only did CmdrTaco not check this out before posting, but Timothy's update is VERY misleading. He says "It looks like the source is available now, gpl.txt and all." (emphasis mine) Well, looks to me like it was available BEFORE too if you bothered to look. It's not like all the sudden they said "Holy CRAP, look at this story on /., we better get our source code up..."
Sheeesh...
Also, you'll find your missing 2 bmps. with IDS 128 adn 234. THose are the toolbars. Export the exe as resources, and bingo. You'll have all teh missing resources.
As for the comiplation errors, simply add the variables to the class. But I don't know if it's worth it... Since, even if I made it compile, it crashes upon startup...
Way to go, MusicCity!!! Not the same sources as the ones used for the distribution... Doesn't that break GPL?
I went to music city's home page, and a download for source code was right on the front page. Hell, it was easier to find then the compiled app they are dishing out.
:)
It helps to read before posting doesn't it
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
The Gnucleus source distribution also has this problem (in addition to tons of warnings, at least under VC7). I think you'll find all the files that should be under res\ are actually in zlib\. You can hand pick them out and move them to res\ or if you just want to compile quickly just duplicate zlib\ over to res\.
EOF
Section 1 of the GPL already requires a copy of the GPL be distributed. Section 3b's written offer term is not a redundent copy of the Section 1 terms but an additional term above and beyond providing a copy of the GPL. Under your interreptation, the alternative terms in Section 3a and Section 3c are not needed since according to you following the required terms of Section 1 would in your rule-book be a defacto compliance with Section 3b. But, in reality, alternative term of Section 3a and 3c are provided because Section 3b terms is NOT defacto covered by GPL Section 1 compliance. Providing just the text of the GPL is NOT a written offer.
You can get hit for what you call "libel by proxy." How else do you think newspapers ever get sued for libel/slander in the first place? All of our information comes from sources. Here's the relevant paragraph, ripped straight out of our reporter's handbook:
There you have it, straight from the horse's mouth. Reading that for the first time really shocked me.I might add that that paragraph really doesn't even apply in this case, where there was clearly not even a good-faith effort made to verify the details, as evidenced by the 20-some readers who posted a link to the source within 10 minutes of the story being posted. At the point where a simple phone call--or, my god, even easier, a scant minute of web-browsing--would have sufficiently refuted everything that they posted, I think that the case for reporterial negligence is pretty clear-cut and strong. Let's face it: Slashdot has the journalistic mores of a middle-school gossip rag, at best; CmrdTaco, Jamie, et al are lousy reporters. If you want to pay money for that, fine, but I'm gonna keep sending my checks to wsj.com.
I think there is a world market for maybe five personal web logs.
Yes you can. Open the exe in MSVC, and save save as... resources.
My build is neither efficient or great, but it did end up working (had to fix their code, couple of missing declarations missing in class headers). I also had to create the icons and bitmaps (i did a horrible job, but they worked).
Here's the screenshot.
I stand corrected. :)