[hackerspaces] Pirating Linux

[Yvan Janssens]

First of all, the contact details to find the source are not reachable: if
you email to the specified address, you'll get a reply from their
mailserver (not GMails as it should be in my case) stating that the address
doesn't exist. Apparently they route the mail internally to another domain,
and the Exchange (yups, they provide full version number/application
name/DNS and IP) rejects the mail because the address doesn't exist.

And to answer your question about busybox: that's the reason why I know it
runs linux:
http://i39.tinypic.com/14ditfn.jpg

I immediately spotted that message on the debug console, and a few lines
below it, you'll get a reference to a read only filesystem in which they're
trying to delete a kernel module.

The device has 3 serial ports, and this is only one of them (this one had
the tempting marks "UART", and included pin headers specially for me).

And about violating the licenses itself: I only want to do something useful
with my device: it's completely locked, drains power for years without
anyone actually knowing what it does, and has awkward policies on your
recordings. Also, the telco uses a CAM to decrypt the DVB-C signal, but you
can only use these devices (technically) to decode it. The device drains a
whopping 468kWh a year (for that money I'd rather mine bitcoin ;-) ), and
nobody actually knows why.

Observant readers already know whech Belgian telco I mean - asking €100 for
an "unlimited" 100Mbit line on which they traffic shape and block access to
thepiratebay.org through DNS blocking ;-). And the people just eat it out
of their hands.

Yvan

2012/4/3 Angus Gratton <gus at projectgus.com>

> On Tue, 3 Apr 2012 01:15:46 +0200
> Yvan Janssens <ik at yvanj.me> wrote:
> > Is it possible to retreive the GPL part from the manufacturer, and
> extract
> > the required binaries out of the device, to use them on the same device?
>
> The catch is that, even though this happens all the time (especially
> for Android as pointed out), this is usually not permitted by the
> licensing agreement on the device, so if you distribute the binary parts
> you're technically pirating yourself.[1]
>
> There are a few exceptions, for instance in Android-land Google
> distribute the OpenGL driver binaries for the Nexus S with a
> non-commercial redistribution clause[2], or (I believe) the Adreno GPU
> drivers for Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets are similarly available.
>
> - Angus
>
>
> [1] Whether anyone cares is a different question, I guess.
>
> [2] Although their license still requires you to agree to only use it
> on Nexus S branded phones & with the Android OS, only.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>



-- 

|_|0|_|   Yvan Janssens
|_|_|0|
|0|0|0|
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20120403/bb77a6f5/attachment.html>