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MPlayer Alleges KISS Technology Violating GPL
bfree writes "Not for the first time, the people at MPlayer think they have found their code being distributed binary only, this time in at least one of KISS Techologies products. In their traditional quiet style the full story is now the first piece of news on their homepage including string comparisons between the player ROM and MPlayer. The 'evidence' presented relates to subtitle identification, where the KISS ROM includes the same list, in order, of subtitle formats as MPlayer (including their own format mpsub) and MPlayer's patterns for each of the formats are also there identically."
Nice troll, but the GPL specifically states that you have to provide the source in machine readable format, namely a disc or something (a medium customarily used for software interchange). Sorry, moron. Try again.
From the GPL:
b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange; or,
My other car is first.
And i'm pretty sure it has to be one of the best investments I've done in my life, great piece of hardware.
Mplayer is also great, before having the KiSS I watched all my media with mplayer, but theris claims are, like nearly always, plain stupid.
How they got access to the C code for the comparisons if the ROM is closed source? It's there for download, only a click away of the firmware page!
Mplayer are famous for two main reasons: first, for programming a killer app for linux, and second, for their constant insults to others developers... Have we forgotten the "Joe Barr can't install mplayer"-affaire? A simple google search gives us pearls as "Joe Barr became infamous by writing a less than favorable MPlayer review." WTF!?!? Complete text here, at the end of page.
In fact, you only have to go down a few post in their main page to read this:
# MPlayerHQ was cracked on November 16 17:50, but noticed 10 minutes later due to some hidden traps. Possibly due to recent lame Linux kernel vulnerability (greetz to kernel devs for not publishing details much earlier).
# Debian sucks - that's the opinion of most of the core developers
That's the way they are, so, please, think twice when you run in their defense!
(Sorry for my bad, bad english)
Hosting 20G hd, 1Tb bw! ssh $7.95
Guess what. Putting some proof and such on your web site doesn't mean anything. If they're violating your copyrights, you need to send a certified letter outlining your proof and telling them to stop. Note: emailing them and asking for source doesn't matter. If they ignore it or refuse, then you have to sue them. It's a copyright violation (there are no "GPL violations", it's simply a copyright violation) and the statutory damages top out at $150K per incident. The damages may be enough to put them out of business.
On the other hand, if you're going to bitch and moan about it on your web site and do nothing else, then I don't see why they'd change their course of action. Obviously, they're not struck by moral or ethical arguments or they wouldn't have gone this far. That leaves legal arguments as the only possibility, but I'm not sure if they need to worry...
Do you have ESP?
They had to reverse engineer the KISS software to see the "stolen code". So why were they reverse engineering competitions code? Makes me wonder if THEY were planning on stealing code.
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one the bus load of girls just went down.
"""
The FSF tends to stick with GNU projects. They insist that all GNU developers give them a form assigning the FSF their copyrights - so that they have strong standing in a court.
"""
Those who've studied a little history may recognise the above way of working. I'm in particular thinking of the wonderful cooperative organisations in Italy that eventaully became the Mafia, and of the wonderful cooperative organisations in Ireland that eventually became the IRA (though the evolution was a longer one in that case).
So, what will the FSF be like in 150 years?
YAW.
Your head of state is a corrupt weasel, I hope you're happy.
You must be one of these people that never made Mplayer work on your system, right? :)
:)
How interesting, that the people who complain about "abusive Mplayer developers" are the ones who are too dumb to make it work on their systems.
Go use Xine - good riddance.