Transcend is violating the GNU laws with their WiFi SD card???

First things first, go check this Hackaday link out for an idea of what's lead to this claim. Now then, check this page out for more details on the hack this person did to a Transcend WiFi SD card. Towards the bottom is where things get interesting. Copy Paste from the second link:

You want the names of the 2 representatives from Transcend as well as their email address? Get them from the second link at the top.

Thoughts? Is Transcend violating the GNU/ GPL/ etc. with this? If so, feel free to report them. I would but I don't know enough about these laws to do so.

 

It's not the 'law', it's a license. It would be civil law at best, not common law. Furthermore, unless the kernel modules use GPL symbols (special routines in the Linux kernel that require the linking module to be GPL), the modules themselves do not have to be GPL licensed. Of course, this does not go for busybox or u-boot.

However, Transcend is correct in the matter. You are only required to provide the sources on request for as long as you actively sell and support the product. If the product really has been discontinued, this obligation is no longer there.

 

Im thinking about buying the card, i find some uses for it. as long as my own Linux is able to run on it and be a storage unit and use the wifi im fine I think.
But a bit repect for a license is good, I think if Transcend still makes wifi cards and we are able to use them like this, their sales grows

 

Read these two topics, sounds interesting. They should definitely include sources of these two modules, as well as valid configuration file, no excuses. I'd report that case to GPL-Violations, but they need a lot of details, mail communication, contacts, list of what included, what should be included and so on, I think only author can do that.