VIA GPL Violation ?

[Arc Riley]

On Thu, Oct 28, 2004 at 11:31:22AM +0200, Amaury Jacquot wrote:
> hi guys
> was looking through via arena, and found this file :
> 
> http://www.viaarena.com/guides/WinCE/fastboot%20v2.03.zip
> 
> problem is, running
> 
> strings */BIOS_*.BIN | grep inux
> 
> gives 2 mentions of LinuxBios for each binary bios file, which makes the
> whole thing suspect...
> 
> should via be hit with some GPL cluestick ?

Send them a registered letter via USPS mail requesting the source code, 
and specify the URL of the code, the source code in question, the 
license, and a specific request for their modified sourcecode under the 
terms of the license.  Make sure to give them a date for compliance.

Make sure you have a copy of the letter, and if they don't comply, I'm 
sure the happy lawyers down at the FSF would be happy to contact them.. 

Rule of thumb:  Do not make a public scene about this.  Handle this 
quietly until public exposure is a last resort; let the FSF handle it.  
If you make a public scene (ie, /. posting) VIA is much less likely to 
be amicable in the future, especially since we *WANT* them developing 
GPL code and being part of the community, not setting policies like 
"never touch GPLed code, it's a minefield".