[X2go-dev] GPL violations

[Jörg Sawatzki]

Hi,

> [ ] you are aware of that the plugin has not been released yet, that the 
> binaries that actually are out are not a release and _not_ intended for a 
> productive environment right now?
Is was published in the German "Linuxmagazin" - so there are thousands
of people knowing the link!
Once again: GPL applies to ANY binaries that you distribute! It does NOT
matter if they are part of an official release! 
If it was true, what you are saying, anybody could violate a licenses
for years by just saying "oh, it's not released yet". The license
applies to anybody who publishes binaries built from GPL code. 

> [ ] you are aware of that x2go drains loads of energy from the two with 
> promoting the procect etc?
I have been trying to contribute bug fixes and extensions since July.
Got lots of promises and excuses - and no result! I have already written
my own python based client because it frustrated me that I couldn't
contribute! It drains them loads of energy to write all the excuses why
they don't follow GPL requirements, why they don't give access to the
code and why they don't honor the work of contributors.
I think getting the community involved and getting further with
development should be more important than promoting the product. Most
stuff is two years old and they still spend a lot of time promoting
that??? How about focus on development and new releases instead of
giving talks about how great they were two years ago?
> 
> [ ] you are aware of that heinz has stated that he already is facing 
> dificulties that make a lawyer necessary, time, nervers, money?
Yes, uploading the sources and the build environment would be cheaper -
but he obviously prefers the lawyer! He has had enough time to fix it.
If he's ignoring it and going on violating the license he has got to
face the consequences. I don't see another way - I have sent heaps of
mails explaining that he is required to publish the sources as soon as
he publishes the binaries.
> 
> [ ] you give credid that this project is happening in spare time, that we 
> get a great software for free? and there _is_ a life next to a pc. i am 
> more than grateful that we do get such a great project, that they put this 
> much effort and energy into x2go. i do want to honor it. 
Go and say thank you to Nomachine, Xming, OpenSSH, sshfs, pulse! They
did the work. I personally cannot honor it anymore, because I had to
reimplement the whole x2go client stack just because I need a few extra
features and these guys are not able to collaborate. I bet I have
reimplemented the server stack and session manager as well before they
are able to accept contributions. It is so frustrating to do the work
again that Heinz and Alex have already done. But well, otherwise I will
probably be dead before I am allowed to contribute to this project!

> 
> [ ] you know that they are huge supportes of oss, gpl and the like, that 
> they have released the source code to the released (!) components and i am 
> 100% sure that this will also happen to the new plugin ... once it has 
> been released?
Once again - the plugin is available on a public webserver and the GPL
applies. If they don't want that, they have to take the binaries offline
or protect access to them through username/password to only selected
persons.
> 
> i am sorry, but even though i believe that you are right to ask for 
> sourcecode, i firmly do believe that in this case you are going too far, 
> hitting the very wrong people!
What would you do if you spent hours and hours and the result is that
you still don't get the code even so you have the RIGHT to?
What would you do? You want your right, you are writing mails to the
responsible persons and after months, you still don't have it?

It is very sad, but if Heinz doesn't want to do it voluntarily, a judge
will have to force him to sit down for two minutes and upload the code.

He is the project leader and has the responsability - if he waits until
people get a lawyer to enforce their rights, it's his problem.

Jörg
> 
> tobias
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> X2go-dev mailing list
> X2go-dev at lists.berlios.de
> https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/x2go-dev