This is a potentially serious issue. I don't know much about the Qnap device, but the following appears to be true:
It runs some version of Linux on x86, which comes preinstalled. It optionally runs slimserver and a number of third party plugins, which can (optionally) come preinstalled. If it runs AlienBBC (which I saw mentioned elsewhere), then mplayer is likely on there too. This is all fine and dandy, but as all this software is GPL'd (well most is, I'm not sure about all the plugins), there are licensing considerations which don't -appear- at first glance to be being met. If they are distributing binaries of the software concerned (mplayer, linux, etc) they _must_ make the source code available, whether they've modified it or not. They don't have to put it on their website or in the box (although that's the most obvious and easy way to satisfy the license) but they must at least put a written offer to supply the source on request in the manual or other documentation. I looked around the Qnap site and found no mention of the GPL, or Slimserver for that matter. I'm not sure if Slimserver is something the manufacturer themselves are installing or whether it's an additional service added by their distributors, so it's perfectly possible that the license is being followed properly. I'd be interested in more information about this. Who installs the Slimserver package? Is the source modified? Is the source available? Owners - does the documentation include an offer to give you the source? -- radish ------------------------------------------------------------------------ radish's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=77 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=20233 _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
