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pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 1:47 AM Views: 1478 Permalink freebox possible GPL violation Hi, I will try to present the facts and free claims about the freebox that run Linux GPL source code. Please note that I am not a Laywer. Also due to the obscurity of the freebox, some informations could be out of date or incorrect. Finaly as free is a french provider, most of the link are in french. ==FACT== 1) The freebox is an adsl gateway with VoIP, TV over ADSL and a optional wifi bridge. The box is built and lended by an ADSL provider 'free'[0]. 2) The freebox runs Linux 2.4. You could find some BitKeeper logs on internet [1], [2]. You could also find some interesting (but sometimes suspicious) informations on [3]. For example you could see the files that are in the firmware (and find other GPL softwares). 3) The boot sequence is described on [4]. Note that in case of firmware upgrade, the box should first synchronize with the dslam and do dhcp requests, then download the new firmware and finaly reboot. 4) The optional wifi support is provided by a pcmcia card (prism2/3 for 802.11b, broadcom for 802.11g). You can buy it on 'free' portal or on your own [5]. Note that in both case the card is yours and it is not lended by 'free'. ==FREE and PRO-FREE CLAIMS (some claims could be find on [6])== A) The freebox is only lended, so the user can't ask for GPL source code. -> They forgot that for wifi feature, you have buy a pcmcia card and that is card works wifi Linux driver. So according to GPL you could ask for wifi driver source code and all the Linux source code ??? Also some people that don't return the freebox in time had to paid 400 Euros and they became the owner of the freebox. Free send to a client a letter [7] saying that if the user don't return the freebox, free could bill it and then it becomes propriety of the user : 'Nous vous rappelons que conformément aux Conditions Générales de Vente , en cas de non-restitution du modem, Free se réserve le droit de procéder à la facturation de l'équipement terminal, au prix mentionné dans les CGV, qui deviendra alors la *propriété* de l'Usager.' B) The freebox don't keep the Linux kernel in memory, it is downloaded at each boot. -> If you remember 3), you could find strange that the box need to reboot if a new firmware is available. Also the boot sequence is quite complex to be made by an external (non-GPL) firmware : it need to control the led display, need to control the ADSL chips in order to synchronize, need to manage PPP in case of 'no-degroupe' users and finaly donwload in memory the fimware. So we could assume that at least a mininal system (Linux kernel + some utils) is keep in rom). C) 'Free' is a network operator and needs to keep secret some informations in order to preserve security on its networks. -> Everybody know how security obscurity via is safe. Also I agree they don't want to give their script or their configuration, but I fail to see what could be a threat in the Linux kernel. PS : sorry for my bad english. [0] http://free.fr [1] http://openlogging.org:8080/sakura.(none)/max-20040524220224-60268-baea416b9b2da5c2/src?nav=index.html [2] http://openlogging.org:8080/chewbacca.proxad.net/rani-20040112173203-20972-c609c93690b2941a/src?nav=index.html [3] http://www.f-b-x.net/ [4] http://forums.grenouille.com/index.php?showtopic=14659 [5] http://faq.free.fr/?q=797 [6] http://djeyl.net/free/nntp/index.php?group=all&author=Alexandre&headers=gpl [7] http://linuxfr.org/comments/626391.html#626391 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo[at]vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Subject User Time freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 1:47 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation helge.hafting at aitel Oct 5, 2005, 2:42 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 3:08 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 3:18 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 4:13 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 4:22 AM             Re: freebox possible GPL violation arjan at infradead Oct 5, 2005, 4:27 AM                 Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 4:37 AM                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation arjan at infradead Oct 5, 2005, 4:59 AM                         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 5:02 AM                             Re: freebox possible GPL violation arjan at infradead Oct 5, 2005, 5:07 AM                                 Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 5:29 AM                                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation mdpoole at troilus Oct 5, 2005, 5:45 AM                                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation aoliva at redhat Oct 5, 2005, 10:11 AM                                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation helgehaf at aitel Oct 5, 2005, 5:07 PM                                         Re: freebox possible GPL violation david.lang at digitalinsight Oct 5, 2005, 5:49 PM                                 RE: freebox possible GPL violation davids at webmaster Oct 10, 2005, 7:27 PM                                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation graham at gmurray Oct 11, 2005, 3:48 AM                             Re: freebox possible GPL violation vincent at snarc Oct 5, 2005, 5:15 AM                 Re: freebox possible GPL violation linux-os at analogic Oct 5, 2005, 4:45 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 4:50 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation arjan at infradead Oct 5, 2005, 4:59 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 8:08 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 8:12 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierreno-spam!org at ensilinx1 Oct 5, 2005, 8:18 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation vincent at snarc Oct 5, 2005, 8:49 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 9:06 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 5, 2005, 9:47 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 5, 2005, 10:57 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation stesmi at stesmi Oct 5, 2005, 6:12 PM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation david.lang at digitalinsight Oct 5, 2005, 7:25 PM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation helge.hafting at aitel Oct 6, 2005, 2:20 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 6, 2005, 2:51 AM             Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 6, 2005, 2:53 AM             Re: freebox possible GPL violation helge.hafting at aitel Oct 6, 2005, 4:39 AM                 Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 6, 2005, 6:05 AM                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation mdpoole at troilus Oct 6, 2005, 6:42 AM                     Re: freebox possible GPL violation helge.hafting at aitel Oct 6, 2005, 7:19 AM             Re: freebox possible GPL violation stesmi at stesmi Oct 6, 2005, 1:15 PM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 6, 2005, 5:01 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation fleury at cs Oct 6, 2005, 6:06 AM             Re: freebox possible GPL violation mdpoole at troilus Oct 6, 2005, 6:40 AM                 Re: freebox possible GPL violation chaosite at gmail Oct 6, 2005, 7:48 AM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre at no-spam Oct 6, 2005, 4:26 PM     Re: freebox possible GPL violation loic at gnu Oct 15, 2005, 2:40 AM         Re: freebox possible GPL violation pierre.michon at gmail Oct 19, 2005, 10:58 AM             Re: freebox possible GPL violation loic at gnu Oct 20, 2005, 8:29 AM

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