On Thursday 06 August 2009 20:10:08 Griffis, Brad wrote:
> Diego,
>
> It stops producing object code.  Here's an example from a product I was
> using from Montavista (this was actually Mobilinux not MVPro):
>
> a0193370# arm_v6_vfp_le-gcc hello.c
> error:  Error: a valid MontaVista license key could not be found.
>
>  The license files (or license server system network addresses)
>  attempted are listed below.  Use LM_LICENSE_FILE to use a different
>  license file, or contact MontaVista license support at
>
>  [email protected] for assistance.
>
> For information about license keys and the GPL, visit:
>
>  The license manager error is:
>
> Feature has expired.
> Feature:       MV_GCC
> Expire date:   28-feb-2009
> License path:  /opt/arm/montavista/mobilinux/LicenseFile.lic:/mnt/sata2 -
>    /opt/arm/montavista/common/bin/../../../../license/
> FLEXnet Licensing error:-10,32
> For further information, refer to the FLEXnet Licensing End User Guide,
> available at "www.macrovision.com".

GCC is licensed under the GPL. Basically, this means MontaVista has to provide 
you with the complete software source code.

What's interesting here is that GCC is covered by the GPL and not the LGPL. 
This means that they also need to release the FLEXLM source code compiled in 
the GCC binary they provided. I wonder how they will comply with the GPL only 
that one, as I doubt the FLEXLM code can be released under an open-source 
license.

My opinion (IANAL, and I haven't studied the situation in details) so far is 
that they might not be violating the GPL until someone asks them to release 
the code, but that they will as soon as they refuse to release it. In that 
case their right to distribute GCC will automatically be revoked until they 
receive written permission by the GCC copyright owner (in this case, the GNU 
project).

Regards,

Laurent Pinchart


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