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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.
Music thieves stealing code too. Who'da thunk it?
Ok, they violated the GPL. What happens? Will they be forced to distribute the source code? Will they be fined? Will they be "asked" to move off of the Gnutella network? What kind of reprocussions will they face?
I'm a repairman in an imperfect world.
Hey guys lets all make a code fork of the Morpheus client!! Tit for tat!
That way we can access the morpheus network and gnutella, and get rid of all the bullshit ads
Yes, friends, subscribe to /. now for this kind of journalistic integrity and quality.
It's certainly silly that Taco would be the one to post this... There was no need to even verify anything. Anybody who knows the GPL a little bit knows that:
"It is currently being distributed without source in violation of article 3 of the GPL"
is a horseshit comment. It says nowhere in the GPL that a distribution of GPLd software MUST be accompanied by the source. All it says is that the source MUST be made available. And Taco should know that.
I mean, I didn't have to read the comments here to know that there was no story...