Submission + - Is HTC in violation of the GPL?
An anonymous reader writes: It has been almost 3 weeks since the HTC EVO 4G officially went on sale on June 4th and a month since it was available to Google IO attendees, yet, HTC has yet to release their modified linux kernel source code as required by the license (GPL V2) of the Linux kernel in the Android operating system. Requesting the source code through HTC only garners this response:
"Thank you for providing us with the request for the sourc code for your EVO 4G, to which I understand you are entitled. I also understand that in the legal information of the phone it says to contact Customer Service with this request, although that is not entirely correct. From Technical Support, we can only pass along your request to the appropriate department, and as they do have your request it will be posted. This is not a gambit of any sort nor a desire to keep anything from our users; as to why it is not available yet, I do not know, nor do my supervisors. If we at Technical Support did have access to either send out the code or post it on the website, I would be more than happy to do so as I understand that you are anxious for it and I would love to be able to provide it. The request has been made to the appropriate department, and when the code is posted it will be available at developer.htc.com. I apologize that it is not available at this very moment, and I thank you for your patience in this matter. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us again."
Does the source have to be released at the same time as the product or is there a grace period? What responsibility do the retailers (Sprint, Best Buy, Radio Shack) share in the responsibility to ensure HTC complies with the GPL?
"Thank you for providing us with the request for the sourc code for your EVO 4G, to which I understand you are entitled. I also understand that in the legal information of the phone it says to contact Customer Service with this request, although that is not entirely correct. From Technical Support, we can only pass along your request to the appropriate department, and as they do have your request it will be posted. This is not a gambit of any sort nor a desire to keep anything from our users; as to why it is not available yet, I do not know, nor do my supervisors. If we at Technical Support did have access to either send out the code or post it on the website, I would be more than happy to do so as I understand that you are anxious for it and I would love to be able to provide it. The request has been made to the appropriate department, and when the code is posted it will be available at developer.htc.com. I apologize that it is not available at this very moment, and I thank you for your patience in this matter. If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us again."
Does the source have to be released at the same time as the product or is there a grace period? What responsibility do the retailers (Sprint, Best Buy, Radio Shack) share in the responsibility to ensure HTC complies with the GPL?
