Dear VLC developers,<br><br>I thought you might be interested in my following
correspondance with the FSF - there is someone who is
seriously violating the GPL under which your software's licenced and I have been
advised to notify you. So, here goes!
<br><br>Regards,<br><br>M. B.<br><br><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">-------------------Forwarded message below</span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">-------------------</span><br><br>Sent to
<span style="font-weight: bold;">FSF-Violations</span> by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wolphin<br>-----<br></span>> <span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Dear Sir,</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">I have come across violations of the GPL at Luxuriousity <
<a href="http://luxuriousity.com/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://luxuriousity.com</a>>. [<span style="font-style: italic;">Note: The site's index has been taken down. You can find their violated VLC here:
<a href="http://www.luxuriousity.com/mediaplayerdownload.htm">http://www.luxuriousity.com/mediaplayerdownload.htm</a> , although they have removed the images as well so that you can't tell it's VLC. You could also try to use Google's cache to see the original web page
</span>]</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Luxuriousity are selling
GPL'ed software like OpenOffice.org, The GIMP, MySQL AB, Audacity and a
few others under different names, such as "Luxuriousity Office
Professional", "Luxuriousity Media Player", "Luxuriousity Multi-Track
Music Studio Professional" and others. Now, quite a few people who have
bought Luxuriousity products have realised that they are actually the
same as programs they already had - or which they could download for
free, instead of $29.99. </span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">While
this is a complete scam, I believe that it is not there where the GPL
is violated, but rather the fact that the source is not distributed
with the products (I have contacted a few of the disappointed
purchasers) and it is not available upon request (I sent an email as if
I were a purchaser wishing to view the source code and received no
reply). Some details follow:
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Precise
name of the product: There are several. Luxuriousity: Office
Professional, Office Deluxe, Email Document Viewer, Media Player,
Multi-Track Music Studio Professional, Karaoke Professional, the list
goes on...
</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">Name of organization: Luxuriousity Inc.</span><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;">
Postal address:<br></span><pre> Luxuriousity Inc. <br> P.O. Box 5670 <br> Santa Monica CA 90409 <br> US <br><br> More info to be found here: <a href="http://samspade.org/t/lookat?a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luxuriousity.com%2F" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
<br>http://samspade.org/t/lookat?a=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luxuriousity.com%2F</a><br></pre><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"><br>Name of violated package: There are various. OpenOffice.org, VLC, The GIMP, Audacity, MySQL AB, and more.
<br><br>How the license was violated: The source code is completely missing.<br><br>I have posted about this on my blog: <a href="http://wolphination.com/linux/2006/01/19/luxuriousity-oss-application-scammer/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://wolphination.com/linux/2006/01/19/luxuriousity-oss-application-scammer/
</a> , which may offer some more information.<br><br>Thank you,<br><br>M. B.<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,sans-serif;"></span>-----<br><br>Sent by <span style="font-weight: bold;">FSF-Violations</span>
to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wolphin</span><br>
<br>Yep, this is definitely a problem. You should write to the copyright
<br>holders of the software in question to let them know.<br><span><span><br><br>-Dave "Novalis" Turner<br>GPL Compliance Engineer<br>Free Software Foundation</span></span>