81–90 of 206 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are technically GPL violations, but kernel devs haven't (yet) complained much.
I've been able to find a statement from 2008 in which many kernel devs publicly said they think that closed drivers are harmful. But violations? I'm not convinced. Got a link that might convince me?
If it's a derivative work of the Linux kernel (links to internal kernel API) it should be GPL. If Samsung distribute it to users then it should do that under GPL. Samsung should be the first to relicense it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ROM scene has always been a grey (verging on black) area when it comes to IP, however the enthusiast scene for the original WinMo and Android has helped the market in general. There has always been a bit of a gentleman's agreement with the manufacturers that if we went too far, we'd be slapped back, but thankfully this has only happened a couple of times. Indeed, the manufacturers themselves have been known to le…
> The ROM scene has always been a grey (verging on black) area when it comes to IP Speak for yourself. There are two scenes: The binary modder scene, where people retro-fit vendor-created and provided firmware-images with their own modifications. Commonly referred to as "Photoshop ROMs". This scene is clearly grey at best. However, there is another scene: The one based on AOSP source and derivates of it. This scene l…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've been able to find a statement from 2008 in which many kernel devs publicly said they think that closed drivers are harmful. But violations? I'm not convinced. Got a link that might convince me?
Depend which you want to listen to. If you want to listen to what lawyers think (fsf), then there is a GPL violation( https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#NonfreeDriverKerne... ). If you want to listen to kernel hackers, (such as Linus Torvalds), then he doesn't say if it is, or isn't a violation. Rather, he says that developers has a right to write non-free drivers to the kernel using modules ( http://linuxmafi…
The non-litigious nature of the kernel devs seems to keep this from kicking off. It would probably end up hysterically expensive for all concerned and be a bit of a PR failure I guess.
The title makes it sound as though this has been accepted into the Linux kernel when in fact it has not been. It is designed to work with the Linux kernel but it is in no way associated with Linux. FUD much?
Did Samsung, in fact, distribute the code in Android devices? If the answer is "yes", wouldn't that make it GPLd?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The ROM scene has always been a grey (verging on black) area when it comes to IP Speak for yourself. There are two scenes: The binary modder scene, where people retro-fit vendor-created and provided firmware-images with their own modifications. Commonly referred to as "Photoshop ROMs". This scene is clearly grey at best. However, there is another scene: The one based on AOSP source and derivates of it. This scene l…
The open source subset of Android is not practically usable though. There aren't many (any?) devices that work usefully without a lot of proprietary bits.
You can just supply a shell-script to extract them from the device, and its assumed that interested parties wanting to build the code has the device themselves.
Feel free to call it a loophole, but I don't have a problem with that and definitely don't see it as something shady.
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I apologise, I am not familiar enough with the usage of 'guy' to know it is generic in singular (I know it is in plural).
No worries :). I just think of it as another way of saying "dude".
But like like guy, dude because gender neutral in common speech.
Isn't this is a general trend with Android/Cyanogenmod hackers? If you go on something like xda-developers then there's a sticky saying "please don't post GPL violations". Early Cyanogen releases were fast and loose with redistribution of Google proprietary apps, which got the author in a spot of trouble IIRC. Right now the distribution of these ROMS is IMO pretty suspect - they include whole swathes of binary blobs…
Cyanogenmod ROMs aren't distributed with Google's apps anymore. If you want Google's Play store and Gmail, one needs to download and install a separate archive (I just did that yesterday :)) Of course, the distribution of that archive is still suspect. The licensing of those apps is the only leverage Google has for controlling the companies that distribute Android, like Samsung. It is meant for the likes of Samsung a…
[1]: https://f-droid.org/
Isn't this is a general trend with Android/Cyanogenmod hackers? If you go on something like xda-developers then there's a sticky saying "please don't post GPL violations". Early Cyanogen releases were fast and loose with redistribution of Google proprietary apps, which got the author in a spot of trouble IIRC. Right now the distribution of these ROMS is IMO pretty suspect - they include whole swathes of binary blobs…
>The fact that so many prebaked ROMs are distributed though megaupload-alikes is a bit of a giveaway as to the general philosophy of that community. What? Hosting (relatively) large files, on services that can deliver those around the world at faster than dialup is now some how bad? So I suppose all those companies using CDNs are also horrible and despicable. I mean, how dare they use servers that are well connected!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The ROM scene has always been a grey (verging on black) area when it comes to IP, however the enthusiast scene for the original WinMo and Android has helped the market in general. There has always been a bit of a gentleman's agreement with the manufacturers that if we went too far, we'd be slapped back, but thankfully this has only happened a couple of times. Indeed, the manufacturers themselves have been known to le…
> The ROM scene has always been a grey (verging on black) area when it comes to IP Speak for yourself. There are two scenes: The binary modder scene, where people retro-fit vendor-created and provided firmware-images with their own modifications. Commonly referred to as "Photoshop ROMs". This scene is clearly grey at best. However, there is another scene: The one based on AOSP source and derivates of it. This scene l…
So when Cyanogenmod was distributing the play store apps illegally there was nothing shady going on? It isn't like they suddenly decided to do the right thing, it was a C&D from Google that got them to stop.
http://androidandme.com/2009/09/hacks/cyanogenmod-in-trouble...