GPL Breech in Sat Receiver?

Aug 18, 2009

Satellite receivers from Viasat, Yousee and Stofa use a Linux system as software base. Danish developer Rasmus Rhode suspects a breach in the GPL.

The object of his suspicions is a Viasat distributed tuning-box from Samsung. The DSB-H670N comes with a Linux kernel and busybox which are both licensed under the GPL. Viasat make no mention of this fact in their documentation and fail to provide a sourcecode with the software. Also, the main binary of the set top-box is statically linked against uClibc.

Following Viasat's failure to respond to the accusations, Rhode has decided to take legal action against the company and because the Dane has copyright on only a small part of the code, he is looking for other busybox developers to support him in the legal move.

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