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Sothink Violated the FlashGot GPL and Stole Code
ShineTheLight sends in news of two Firefox plug-ins: FlashGot, the original, and Sothink, the GPL-violating come-lately. "People at Sothink decided to violate the GPL by stealing a piece of core code from FlashGot and using it without even the decency of covering their tracks. It is an exact copy of a previous version of FlashGot. This deception came to light when users reported to the FlashGot support forum that their software was not working right. Some digging led to the discovery that the older module that Sothink stole and used verbatim was overriding the more recent engine on the machines of those who had both installed and it was causing the issue. It has been reported to AMO and the FlashGot developer is aware of it. The Sothink people have completely ignored and been silent on the subject. This is why most good programmers will stop contributing to the global community because there are those who will steal their work, pass it off as their own, never acknowledge or give credit, and then shamefully stick their head in the sand and ignore the consequences." The three most recent reviews of Sothink point out this plug-in's dishonest nature. A number of earlier, one-line, 5-star reviews — expressed in a similar style — sound suspiciously like astroturfing.
It's not like firefox extensions are compiled.
Ok here is the correct URL to slashdot Sothink. Don't bother the Mozilla server linkeded above.
Inquiringmindswanttoknow !!
If it's okay to download movies and CDs and herpes, what is all the hoopla about gpl ?? Either it's okay to STEAL or it's not okay. If you want it both ways, just say you're BI and get on with the rest of your life.
Fact is, NO CODE WAS STOLEN !! It still exists right where it was before. Only, maybe, somebody has a COPY of this. NOTHING WAS LOST !! IP is a figment if COPYRIGHT HOLDERS imaginations !! NOTHING TO SEE HERE !! Move along !!
> It's not stealing, it's a copyright violation :P
Actually, it's copyright infringement. The word violation is used with the word license (as in GPL violation).
Over the last few years a lot of companies have sprang up using ffmpeg as a backend while shoving some putrid gui over the top which somehow justifies the pricetag (in this case "Video Encoder Engine for Adobe Flash" costs $600!).
They tend to fall into two camps, those who attempt to use the lgpl parts of ffmpeg and publish the license; and those who outright ignore the gpl or pretend they've followed it.
ffmpeg keeps a "Hall of shame" for these violaters but sothinkmedia have not yet been added.
I downloaded their videoconverter and ran it through wine. It gave me a eula with some non-gpl/lgpl terms which I duly said yes to "You may not make or distribute copies of the Software, or electronically transfer the Software from one computer to another or over a network. You may not recompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, or otherwise reduce the Software to a human-perceivable form".
Program installed what's this, avcodec.dll oh dear. Compiled in with x264, xvid etc. so GPL rather than LGPL. For a token gesture it created a folder called xvid with the GPL placed in there even though they violate most of it.
Stealing code from flashgot is a minor issue compared to that of ffmpeg.
FlashGot is made by the same author that writes NoScript. The same NoScript that had malicious code that interfered with AdBlock Plus' functionality. Karma is a bitch, basically. I am really not feeling any sympathy for him. Flame on!
I think he means that Monsoon Media, the company that was violating the Busybox license, was making money off it.
> But if it incorporates GPL code, it automatically falls under the GPL.
No it doesn't. If it incorporates GPL code without itself being under the GPL it infringes the copyright on the incorporated code.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Throw ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException();
Imagine you are a professional developer and sometimes considering to contribute to open source stuff which many of them does, in fake names or nicks. Why would you do it for? For yourself and community.
How would you think if you browsed this very story comments and seeing "oh but it is not stealing", "stop whining", "citation needed" junk? I know several people who are very advanced developers, contributed to open source and got sick of the never thanking, understanding community and gave up. They now enjoy their millions from "evil companies" at least gives credit to their time.
Flashgot people served OS X community who doesn't know they already have a great download manager named "curl" in their default OS X installation. I really respect them for that. They could code a $20 download manager or add some "ask.com" "google" toolbar and enjoy the constant income. Of course, as they ship it free, open source, in XUL format (not cool C!), their code deserves to get stolen. You know, in open source, they just sleep with laptop open and code writes itself.. Automatically!
Several GPL lawsuits have been filed in the United States (Cisco and Verizon/Busybox off the top of my head). So far all have been settled before reaching court. However, the GPL has been upheld by a German court: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2007/07/skype-loses-gpl-lawsuit-in-germany.ars
Are we being politicians now?
Nice straw man
Yes, they stole , hours or perhaps days/months of work.
If nothing went missing, it isn't theft or stealing. Logic dictates that. Emotions do not.
is stealing. They stole a digital artifact, they stole "information", "knowledge".
You can't just repeat "it is, it is, it is." You have to prove it, especially since the burden of proof is on you. Data, knowledge, information is non-tangible, it can't be stolen. You REALLY like stretching definitions to rediculous lengths, don't you?
hey took something without doing something required or giving something required
That is a dangerously BROAD definition that nobody in their right mind would accept (and is why the legal codes internationally require deprival of something - property - they had.
It is not a movie, don't go into "but it is not stealing" mode immediately.
Same concepts still apply - same differences still exist.
It is 2009 already and you people have issues with understanding the difference between "virtual" and "real" things
Obviously "we" are the ones who are trying to give data, and abstract ideas the properties of physical objects, obviously we have the issues. /s
oh yes, pirating a Hollywood movie is stealing too... Like I explained above. I don't really care if producer is Satan himself.
Actually, it still isn't, thanks for showing you are incapable of backing up your assertions with anything other than "it is" though.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
GPL requires that you ship code with the delivery, and that the package is licensed under a GPL acceptable license. That's _it_. It does not require you to perform any advertising, nor acknowledge where the code came from. You want attribution? Use the old BSD license, or the new Apache one, not the GPL.
I would say that plugin address spaces aren't kept separate (thus avoiding the issue entirely) is a Firefox _bug_ (or perhaps it's designed that way on purpose), rather than any GPL violation.
So far, nothing in the summary (nor any of the articles) points out the GPL violation.
Additionally, if you're saying that plugins that are GPL'ed can't coexist with plugins that aren't GPL'ed, that's an interesting statement. If that were true, I would hope that the GPL is _banned_ as an acceptable plugin license in order to prevent all Firefox users from being copyright violators.
"we wouldn't need to rely so much on the GPL"
With no copyright, you cannot rely on the GPL at all because it's unenforceable. Much like a person without arms wouldn't rely on gloves so much because they're unwearable.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
No it doesn't. It requires that you ship the offer of code with the binary.
Please actually read the thing before making ADAMANT BUT COMPLETELY WRONG CLAIMS IN ALL CAPS.
That goes for moderators too, at least those sucked in by posters relying on authoritative sounding claims.
No, that it is licensed under the GPL license. (or if >=, then >=)
Section 2a. of the GPL2 is 4 lines long. The entire license file is 339 lines long. i.e. that's not just _it_ at all.
Sure it does. You must both advertise to the downstream user their rights under the license, and in some circumstances the No Warranty text should be shown. This is Term 1, it's not exactly buried in the text.
The original copyright statements must remain intact. (Term 1.)
An interesting commentary on the goals of the licenses and motivations of authors can be taken from this.
maybe that is a Firefox bug.
WTF are you talking about?? Please explain why it can not be both these unrelated things?
Once again, WTF are you talking about?? Except the part in the summary which says they incorporated the code of a GPL project without licensing their plugin as GPL nor letting their users know their rights under that license.
Technically a customer has to request the code and be denied it, but probably the failure to advertise that the code is available to end users under the terms of the GPL is enough to get them legally in the poop and get slapped with an injunction.
Where does this strawman come from? The problem here is not that 2 plugins of differing license sit side by side, it is that GPL code is being mixed with non-GPL code into a non-GPL product and redistributed as non-GPL. The fact that it is a for-profit company doing this doesn't change much beyond kill any innocent-mistake excuses.
All Firefox users are absolutely fine to use a mix of GPL and non GPL plugins at run time. What they can't do is redistribute the things together as a single monolithic program to others without relicensing the entire package as GPL. The GPL has to do with redistribution, not use. (ie the "copy" in "copyright")
Please RTF License! It's really not that hard.
~.~
I'm a peripheral visionary.