3Com's GNU software theft

These three programs are included in the core of the NBX's only running program. Its a several meagbyte program that is staticly linked in a.out format.

The license terms of the IMAP Tool kit can allow for private ageements betweeen The University of Washington and 3Com however my research indicates no such agreement currently exists and their term #7 prohibits 3Com's current action.

The GNU Zip and GNU Tar programs are covered under the GNU GPL.

How can one verify this is true? Ask an NBX 100 or look at the images. You can FTP the "vxWorks" program from an NBX 100 using standard ftp tools by logging in as the administrator. On a unix computer, strings vxWorks will show you a large amount of text that is in the program. One of these lines will read " This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version."

Here are instructions to verify these claims.

This proves that the some GNU code is included inside the vxWorks program and that is in violation of the GNU license agreement.

The following is what GNU requests for licence violations

• Does the distribution contain a copy of the License?NoThe code claims its GPLed but only where the users will never see it.
• Does it clearly state which software is covered by the License? Does it say anything misleading, perhaps giving the impression that something is covered by the License when in fact it is not?N/A
• Is source code included in the distribution?No
• Is a written offer for source code included with a distribution of just binaries?No
• Is the available source code complete, or is it designed for linking in other non-free modules? No

• the precise name of the product: 3Com NBX 100 and other members of the NBX family
• the name of the person or organization distributing it: 3Com
• email addresses, postal addresses and phone numbers for how to contact the distributor(s): (800) NET-3COM
• the exact name of the package whose license is violated: GNU Tar and GNU Zip
• how the license was violated:
  • Is the copyright notice of the copyright holder included? Not clearly
  • Is the source code completely missing?No source has been provided
  • Does the written offer for source, if given, only give a website and/or FTP site where to download the source?No source offer has been made
  • Is there a copy of the license included in the distribution?No, its existance is hidden in the program
  • Is some of the source available, but not all? If so, what parts are missing?No source is provided