Recently, Ben, an employee of UMIDIGI, a smart device manufacturer, was suspected of violating the GPL v2 agreement for responding to an email from a Polish developer, which triggered heated discussions in the technology circle for a while.
incident review:
The cause of the controversy is that a Shenzhen smart device manufacturer named UMIDIGI used Android smart phone devices sold through Amazon to use the kernel source code based on Android 10, and the Linux kernel of the Android system is based on the GPL v2 open source agreement. .
According to the relevant agreement, any modification of the source code by the developer needs to be open source.
Therefore, a developer named Patrycja from Poland sent an email to UMIDIGI, hoping that UMIDIGI company could disclose the kernel source code of this UMIDIGI F2 phone based on Android 10, especially the "ft8719_dsi_fhdplus" display/screen driver.
Subsequently, on August 17, the developer uploaded a screenshot of the reply email from UMIDIGI using the Twitter account Patrycja@ptrcnull, and also posted the article "my favorite corporate interaction so far". He was "perfunctory" about his desire to provide the kernel source code in the email. "I expressed doubts, and caused heated discussions on the Internet.
From the screenshot of the e-mail published by the developer Patrycja, we can see that the reply e-mail comes from an employee of UMIDIGI company named Ben. The email stated that Patrycja could come to UMIDIGI Shenzhen company during working hours to obtain the source code, communicate in Chinese and include the company address.
Below the Twitter post of Patrycja@ptrcnull, well-known technology blogger Naomi Wu commented-"I can give it a shot, what are you looking for here?" He expressed his willingness to help.
Three days later, the blogger Naomi Wu (机械妖姬)@RealSexyCyborg posted a video on Twitter that entered the UMIDIGI Shenzhen company to help Patrycja obtain the kernel source code to "discuss".
In the video, Naomi Wu asked UMIDIGI staff who sent the email to Ben, and indicated that he would help Patrycja obtain the kernel source code. The employees present said that Ben had already left the company and did not respond to the issue of the kernel code.
At present, the incident has attracted widespread attention on twitter and reddit.
open source agreement can not be taken lightly
Among hundreds of Open Source Licenses in the world, the GPL v2 license agreement requires that the secondary distribution project must also be open source, so incidents that violate the GPL v2 open source agreement are more concerned. In recent years, open source disputes have occurred from time to time at home and abroad. And behind the frequent occurrence of such disputes, some problems have also been exposed.
Last year, Onyx, an e-book manufacturer based on the Linux kernel, was "accused" by the industry for being suspected of violating the GPL 2.0 agreement. We know that the Linux kernel is based on the GPL v2 license, and the secondary distribution project must also be open source.
In the end, Onyx officially responded that "the technical team stated that the source code cannot be opened at this time" and hoped that others would understand. Although the company admitted that it was wrong, it was still criticized by the industry, and even the entire field did not respect the level of open source agreements based on the incident.
Therefore, in the face of incidents of developing software in violation of open source agreements around the world, we are also aware of the necessity of respecting the original license agreement and we must pay attention to it.
Regarding the governance of this type of infringement, in recent years, most of the domestic and foreign countries have adopted the legal level of accountability. In 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit asserted the copyright validity of open source agreements for the first time in actual precedents. Our country has also acquiesced in the legal effect of open source agreements in actual litigation cases and severely punishes infringements.
For example, in December 2019, China imposed full penalties on related technology companies for incidents. In this case, there were three plug-ins in the plaintiff’s software that used the GPL, and the software of the two defendants copied and modified the three plug-ins in the plaintiff’s software, but they did not all open source in accordance with the GPL. In the end, the court ordered the defendant to stop the infringement and compensate 710,000 yuan.
Many incidents can be seen that protecting the effectiveness of open source agreements through laws and safeguarding the rights and interests of copyright holders is also an effective way to "force the industry" to respect and value open source agreements. Only by respecting open source agreements can the open source ecosystem continue Develop, maintain the core of freedom and sharing, and bring more value to the entire field.
Therefore, as enterprises and manufacturers in this field, while enjoying the benefits of GPL and other open source agreements, they should also uphold the attitude of giving back to the open source ecosystem. Only relevant agreements and regulations can enable the open source ecosystem to achieve more positive "sustainable" development.
How to treat open source
This station talked about similar issues in the previous article, and quoted the technical man Ruan Yifeng on the issue of "how to properly view open source". Looking back on his earlier article, you can see him on the matter in this article. Attitude:
How to choose an open source license for the code is a problem. There are probably hundreds of open source licenses in the world. Few people can figure out the difference between them. Even choosing among the six most popular - GPL, BSD, MIT, Mozilla, Apache, and LGPL - is complicated.
Ukrainian programmer Paul Bagwell drew an analysis diagram to illustrate how to choose. This is the simplest explanation I have ever seen. In just two minutes, you can figure out the biggest difference between these six licenses.
Zhihu netizen @容嘉 also responded to "It is necessary to install an open source software declared as GPLV2 protocol on commercial equipment, without modifying the source code of this software, the software runs as an independent process. How can I comply with the open source agreement?" ,:
You can use it directly. As long as you don't modify the software, you can ignore his agreement. Of course, if you make modifications that meet your application environment, please make sure to provide it to the open source community!
Regarding the GPL v2 agreement, it is too long and it is rather confusing to understand. Just quote Linus Torvalds' understanding of the GPL v2 agreement to illustrate your problem.
my argument for liking version 2, and I still think version 2 is a great license, was that, "I give you source code, you give me your changes back, we are even." Right? That's my take on GPL version 2, right, it's that simple.
Translation:
I like the reasons for version 2, and I still think version 2 is a great protocol, the reason is: "I give you the source code, you give me your modifications to it, and we are evened out" right? This is my reason for using GPL version 2. It's that simple.
Nowadays, the concept of "open source" has been paid more and more attention and recognized by everyone, and the projects and development of open source have become an important indicator of a country's scientific and technological level. Open source is not closed, let alone monopolistic. It should be respected by the majority of developers.
SegmentFault has been working hard to speak out for the concept of open source and actively helping open source projects and developers. I hope that more developers can participate in the construction of the "open source ecosystem". Of course, compliance with open source rules is an important prerequisite.
Relevant tweet address:
https://twitter.com/ptrcnull/status/1427449401635745797
Blogger Naomi Wu (机械妖姬)@RealSexyCyborg video tweet:
https://twitter.com/RealSexyCyborg/status/1428706989274583049
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