3 ms·

What options does the community have to compel Barnes and Noble to satisfy their obligations?

RexRollman 15y ago
A copyright lawsuit requesting damages and a cease and desist, I would imagine.
aquayellow 15y ago
Technically, anyone who has contributed to the Linux kernel can drag them to court. Probably not something an average developer will jump into :) That said, Harald Welte has a dedicated site for this : http://gpl-violations.org/ http://gpl-violations.org/ and he is pretty active chasing violators. Personally, I believe if there is straightforward evidence that the sources they are providing is incomplete, spreading the word around is a good start!
- nknight 15y ago
  > I believe if there is straightforward evidence As far as I could tell from that thread, there isn't, just a lot of ignorance. B&N has no legal obligation to tell them how to get a custom kernel to boot on the Nook.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    > B&N has no legal obligation to tell them how to get a custom kernel to boot on the Nook Nor the obligation to make it possible. Signed boots are OK.
rbanffy 15y ago
First of all, make sure B&N is violating the GPL. GPLv2 does not require them to make it possible to flash a new OS into the device and boot off it. As long as you can compile the sources into an executable that can possibly run, they are compliant. I too would like Linux to be licensed under GPLv3, but a lot of companies wouldn't. I seriously doubt my TV manufacturer would be OK with me running my own code on it. Or my cable box.
- burgerbrain 15y ago
  I suppose I can see cable box manufacturer, but why would the maker of your TV care in the slightest?
  - robin_reala 15y ago
    Warranty claims, and upselling. Samsung use (used?) Linux as the base OS for a large number of their TVs so of course replacement firmware projects sprang up (e.g. SamyGo [1]). The project added additional functionality to their TVs like playing movies from a USB stick - features that Samsung had restricted to their higher-end TVs. Within a few months Samsung had released an ‘official’ firmware upgrade that removed the ability to load unofficial (unsigned I guess?) updates. [1] http://forum.samygo.tv/ http://forum.samygo.tv/

A copyright lawsuit requesting damages and a cease and desist, I would imagine.

Technically, anyone who has contributed to the Linux kernel can drag them to court. Probably not something an average developer will jump into :) That said, Harald Welte has a dedicated site for this : http://gpl-violations.org/ http://gpl-violations.org/ and he is pretty active chasing violators. Personally, I believe if there is straightforward evidence that the sources they are providing is incomplete, spreading the word around is a good start!

nknight 15y ago
> I believe if there is straightforward evidence As far as I could tell from that thread, there isn't, just a lot of ignorance. B&N has no legal obligation to tell them how to get a custom kernel to boot on the Nook.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  > B&N has no legal obligation to tell them how to get a custom kernel to boot on the Nook Nor the obligation to make it possible. Signed boots are OK.

rbanffy 15y ago

First of all, make sure B&N is violating the GPL. GPLv2 does not require them to make it possible to flash a new OS into the device and boot off it. As long as you can compile the sources into an executable that can possibly run, they are compliant. I too would like Linux to be licensed under GPLv3, but a lot of companies wouldn't. I seriously doubt my TV manufacturer would be OK with me running my own code on it. Or my cable box.

burgerbrain 15y ago
I suppose I can see cable box manufacturer, but why would the maker of your TV care in the slightest?
- robin_reala 15y ago
  Warranty claims, and upselling. Samsung use (used?) Linux as the base OS for a large number of their TVs so of course replacement firmware projects sprang up (e.g. SamyGo [1]). The project added additional functionality to their TVs like playing movies from a USB stick - features that Samsung had restricted to their higher-end TVs. Within a few months Samsung had released an ‘official’ firmware upgrade that removed the ability to load unofficial (unsigned I guess?) updates. [1] http://forum.samygo.tv/ http://forum.samygo.tv/