Re: Netgear missing build tools preclude GPL firmware build

On 04/03/2011 09:24, Arnt Karlsen wrote:
> On Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:43:55 +0100, Armijn wrote in message
> <4D6FE16B.9010009 <at> uulug.nl>:
>
>> On 03/01/2011 09:20 PM, Paul Parsons wrote:
>>> Thus Netgear seem to admit that their GPL firmware cannot be built
>>> without Conexant proprietary software.
>> Which is quite common. I suppose that you were expecting a tarball
>> with Makefiles and everything as part of the "scripts to control
>> compilation and installation". Right now there is no consensus
>> whether top level Makefiles (for a firmware for example) should be
>> included. Some people say those should be, others say it is just for
>> individual components, because the firmware itself is not a
>> derivative work, just "mere aggregation".
>>
>> Personally I don't know if those scripts should be released. I would
>> like them to release it though. That being said, I did get a mail
>> from NETGEAR that they are looking into this but that this takes
>> time. I fear that you were just being stonewalled by their support
>> desk :(
>>
>> armijn
>>
> ..it would be useful to imagine a copyright case, where Netgear etc
> would want to prove its case by making the court able to verify it
> gets the same files and the same file check-sums, by following the
> same recipe.
I wonder if it would? At least in the UK, I would imagine such a case 
would be covered by expert witnesses and evidence that didn't get 
released to the public.

Anyone that brought such a case would have to be sure the code wasn't 
correct, or they'd risk becoming liable for Netgear's legal costs.

(Besides which, checksums often differ between binaries compiled from 
the same source with the same tools for a variety of reasons - it is 
notoriously difficult to reproduce an identical binary from identical 
source for many toolsets. For starters, random things like file 
timestamps, compile time/date, absolute source tree locations, exact 
compiler patch version, compiler install location, processor type, local 
username, local hostname and just random uninitialised data are often 
thrown into .o files.)

Joseph