Busybox GPL violator: LaCie

walter harms wharms at bfs.de
Fri Mar 9 16:59:48 UTC 2007


hi all,
So far i remember is the question (GPL), does it compile ?
Several Companies had offered source code in the past, but in some
cases important stuff was missing.

maybe thinkliberty has such a device and can give us some more informations.

btw: thinkliberty, if you can find the sources perhaps you can write a nice
     email to the CEO and tell him that the support is talking rubbish and
     point out that they are getting serious trouble if they keep people telling
     there is no source.

GPL is not about scaring people but open source.

re,
 wh


Tommi Kyntola wrote:
> Well, they do have some GPL sources available. Atleast for the
> Ethernet Disk mini and some other linux package
> 
> http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers/index.htm
> 
> The first gpl package:
> ftp://207.189.107.141/lacie-ED_Linux-gpl.zip
> contains busybox-1.1.0-lacie.tar.gz and other gpl source
> packages. They're also availabe on the ftp server separately.
> 
> I don't know wether they're supposed to have such links there
> on the same page as the firmware download or not, ianal, but
> having some gpl packages behind two-three clicks after the
> country selection (-> downloads -> hard-drives) is not close
> to worst I've seen. /me thinks it's actually quite decent.
> 
> cheers,
> Tommi Kyntola
> 
> thinkliberty wrote:
>> LaCie (www.lacie.com) by selling it's "LaCie Ethernet Disk RAID"  is 
>> violating your copyrights by distributing busybox without a copy of the 
>> GPL (or even a notice of the gpl.) I also called their tech support line 
>> (503-844-4503)and they told me the source code was not available.
>> See product at:
>> http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=10876
>>
>> You can see they are using busybox by downloading the latest firmware 
>> for the product at:
>> ftp://207.189.107.141/BCFv13b524-external.zip
>> link from the page:
>> http://www.lacie.com/us/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10101
>>
>> (Notice that there is no offer to distribute the source code or a copy 
>> of the GPL in the firmware or the page linking to the firmware)
>>
>> You can tell the firmware is using busybox by unziping the file; a net 
>> friend of mine found someone that figured out how to unpack  the pkg 
>> file from firmware link above. Here is what he has sent me: (he did not 
>> give me a link to where he found the info)
>>
>> The .*pkg* file contains a header and then a gziped tar file
>>
>> The header consists of:
>>
>> 32 byte: md5sum of the remaining file
>> 32 byte: identification string, starting with "*FALCONSTOR*@" and then 
>> followed by the machine identification, e.g . EP###
>> 8 byte: length of header in KB
>> 16 byte: *firmware* version number (e.g. #.#-b####)
>> 16 byte: *firmware* version string (e.g. fs-bc)
>>
>> Remove the above info from the file and then the remainder is just a 
>> tarball.
>>
>> LaCie's contact info can be found at
>> http://www.lacie.com/us/contact/index.htm
>>
>>
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>>
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