[U-Boot] Possible GPL violation

Mateusz Kulikowski mateusz.kulikowski at gmail.com
Tue Feb 19 21:32:43 CET 2013


Hi,

Short version:
Is there anyone that can support me with enforcing GPL compliance on 
company that ships product with binary u-boot? Or did that in the past?


Long version:
Polish market is flooded with cheap DVB-T receivers (we're switching to 
digital tv now), android tablets etc.
They're "made" (branded is probably better word) by local companies, and 
my guess is that most of them is violating GPL.

Some time ago I've bought WIWA HD100 DVB-T receiver.
I have coverage issues, so I decided to play a bit with this device, 
just to have fun (also to try to port Linux there).

I already knew that other models made by this vendor are using u-boot, 
so I played a bit with HW, found serial port and:

<log>
  Hello U-Boot


U-Boot 1.1.6 (Oct 13 2011 - 00:32:14)

Board: MSTAR KRNOUS (CPU Speed 552 MHz)
DRAM:  64 X 0 MBytes
U-Boot is running at DRAM 0x87600000
</log>

I also disassembled parts of asm code (AFAIR it was mips_cache_reset, 
but I may be wrong).

I'd love to have sources (porting Linux to unknown, closed SOC is 
painful without documentation, u-boot sources are very helpful), so I 
wrote to manufacturer and called them several times.
Unfortunately they either don't understand what I'm asking for, or 
deliberately ignoring my requests.

I can't do much myself (except for nagging them for source code), as 
it's not my copyrights that they're infringing.

Is there a chance that you can help me or should I try using 
GPL-Violations mailing list?

Regards,
Mateusz


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