[maemo-developers] closed tools, Re: Maemo Flasher-3.5 Tool Beta for Fremantle and Diablo released

[From: Nils Faerber]

Dave Neary schrieb:
> Hi,
> 
> Faheem Pervez wrote:
>> You sure you have a choice in the matter? Considering how you're
>> already violating the GPL.
> 
> I don't know the details of the situation. I just want to remind you
> that the GPL is a distribution licence. That's why we don't get all
> Google's changes to the Linux kernel and Apache back upstream. It seems

Well, Google publishes all the sources, see
	http://android.git.kernel.org/
This git seems impressively complete.

But this is OT here since we are talking about Nokia/Maemo.

Concerning obligations, Nokia nor anyone else is obliged by the license
to push changes upstream - it is just good practise. You only have to
give access to the changes or the whole (modified) source package, which
Nokia in 99.9% of the cases properly did and which Google using the git,
as far as we can tell from just looking at it, also did.

What we can really moan and complain about is the lack of good practise
with some businesses, since already mentioned, e.g. Google. They did a
pretty bad job in working *together* with the communities to get their
thing done. This is quite in contrast with Nokia which collaborated
quite well from the very early beginning of the Maemo project.
There is always room for improvement, but hey...

But what really sucks badly is the tivolization taking place especially
in the mobile phone area, where you get all the sources (due to license)
and probably most of the tools but you f*ckn' cannot get a modified
version of some part onto the device. This *really* sucks!
And frankly it really hurts me.
(For the Google stuff by some lucky coincidence the engineering
bootloader leaked and a way to "root" the device but this was not
intended neither by Google, HTC nor T-mobile). And here Nokia again is a
little more open than many others by providing the flasher util, which
basically allows you to install anything onto your tablet.

I sincerely hope that this openness continues when Nokia releases Linux
based mobile phones some day...

> that I've seen people say that Nokia doesn't even distribute the initfs
> tools. If that's the case, there wouldn't be any GPL violation.

I might be wrong here but I am pretty sure that the GPL also requires
you to give access to the tools that were used to generate the shipped
version from the (L)GPLed sources.

A little more specifically see:

http://www.softwarefreedom.org/resources/2008/compliance-guide.html

section 4.2.3

So you need at least have to say which *exact* tools were used and how
they were used to produce the binary you shipped.
So you do not necessarily have to directly supply them but you have to
exactly name them and the way they ought to be used to reproduce the
binary you shipped.
Well, fair enough...
I would also expect, though it is not mentioned there directly, that
those tools have to available to everyone - with a price-tag maybe, but
must be available.

> Cheers,
> Dave.
Cheers
  nils faerber

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