Thomas Charron wrote: > A binary is *not* a modification of the source, no more then a meal > is a 'modification' of a recipe.
Actually, in the USA it is. Admittedly, it may be handled differently in different copyright jurisdictions. Regardless, one needs permission under copyright to prepare and distribute a binary work if that work builds, in part or in whole, from source code copyrighted by someone else. That's true in pretty much all Berne Convention countries AFAIK. (Can anyone identify a Berne Convention country where this *isn't* true?) I wrote: >> Note, again, that users who bought the devices that include the >> no-source-available exfat modules received distribution of binaries, >> and have a right to source code. Thomas replied: > No, they do not. Multiple investigators, including me personally, have confirmed the facts I stated above and elsewhere in this thread. I don't think Samsung distributed those modules with every single tablet, though, only specific versions. If you have a Samsung tablet, it may or may not have the exfat code in it. > The code was released out of the kindness and as a contribution to the > community as a whole. I don't dispute that Samsung has handled this problem with kindness and cooperation, but they *were* resolving a GPL violation. > It was found after a developer had improperly pushed it publically, I also think rxrz's actions in this matter were deplorable and incorrect, mostly because rxrz's actions made it *more difficult* than it would have been to resolve the matter to a good resolution. But please don't conflate rxrz's bad actions with the GPL violation underneath. Samsung distributed the exfat Linux module with some of their Linux-based tablet products. That's a violation of GPL and infringement of copyright. Samsung since corrected that violation with their source release, and, in my experience, they did so in a way that was kind, considerate, and cooperative with the Free Software community. rxrz thought it would help to "leak" the code. I agree with you that it didn't help, and actually made things worse and more confusing. But that's a separate issue. -- bkuhn
