Dani,
I'm not familiar with this code base or software specifically, but I am curious, how did you determine it was linked? Did you use a platform tool, such as ldd or dumpbin or did you just grep the baseline for 'librtlsdr" and it popped up? There's a difference between finding text in a baseline vs a lib being statically or dynamically linked into it, which is why I ask. I will assume you are correct and it is being used, one way or another.
Because you received a copy of a derivative work containing software that has GPL applied to it, then you are entitled to the source code of the derivative work. It should have also come with a copy of the GPL, but if not, bygons.
Developers Are human and make mistakes, it would be interesting to hear from the authors to determine what the story is. If the libraries that you referred to are not being used and could be stripped out, that could eliminate the issue down the road or they could just release the whole thing under GPL moving forward and be done with it.
I'm interested in following this :-)
Joseph Armbruster
On Wed, Oct 12, 2016 at 5:28 AM, Dani EA4GPZ daniel@destevez.net wrote:
Hi all,
As some of you may know, I'm trying to build a GNUradio receiver for Outernet, partly by reverse engineering their binary-only code.
While examining this code, I've noted that this code is using librtlsdr and libmirisdr, which are licenced under the GPLv2 or later (and not LGPL). It is my understanding that this forces the binary-only code to be released under a GPL-compatible licence.
More info: http://pastebin.com/ENCYejn8
Can someone with legal experience tell whether am I right in my interpretation of the licences?
Also, does anyone have the contact information for Outernet? I tried to contact the user "foxbunny" in Github, who is the main contributor to the Github repos of Outernet. However, he no longer works at Outernet.
I know that some of you are having fun with the Outernet receiver, and I don't want to discourage anyone from doing so. However, I think that it is in agreement with the Ham Radio spirit to be able to learn how the technology works. Currently, the key software pieces of the Outernet receiver are closed-source.
Recently, only after some nontrivial reverse engineering effort I could figure out the scrambler they use. It turns out it's a scrambler algorithm I hadn't heard about before, so there I learnt something: https://twitter.com/ea4gpz/status/785586536225976320
Also, I think that in particular librtlsdr (the code that makes RTL-SDR receivers work) has given hams uncountable hours of enjoyment with these low cost SDR receivers. Therefore, we should support the fact that this software is GPL and try to protect it from anyone who wishes to abuse its licence.
I think that the Outernet project would benefit from releasing all their software under a free software (open source) licence, and I told that to Thane Richard from Outernet when he first announce the project on amsat-bb almost a year ago.
73,
Dani EA4GPZ. _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb