On Tue, 15 Apr 2014 20:18:25 -0400
"Bradley M. Kuhn" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Obviously this list will have some of of that sort of discussion,
> but can we please focus when someone reports a potential violation
> to help that person collect the evidence they need and get set
> up properly to do the usual easy things that might yield compliance?
> 
> Anyway, I've written to Marc privately on that front.

Thanks for your help. I replied to your private mail which asked for
evidence on the GPL violation. I think it would be better to discuss
these things openly on this list so others may profit from
the documentation of the process in the future.

The evidence is clear in this case: The car's android firmware is
updated by an sd card. The sd card gets loaded from a PC application,
which internet traffic I traced and got the URL of the firmware. Also
the downloaded firmware is put in the data dir of the application and
also (in exctracted form) on the sd card. As already mentioned in
another posting, the filesystem contains a file NOTICE.html.gz which
includes all the 3rd party software (in its licenses).

I don't have directy access to the embedded system yet, but I plan to
get it. It's a new car and I hessitate to dismantle it unless it is
really needed.

Regarding GPL enforcement, here in Germany, the GPL was enforced in
court several times already. gpl-violations.org lists some examples.

What's still looks strange to me is that the GPL gives all the rights
to endusers, but they are now allowed to file a suit? Instead they have
to find an involved developer willing to do it for them? If this is
true, it heavily weakens the GPL. 

Marc

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