Ethereal-dev: [Ethereal-dev] ClearSight update
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From: Gerald Combs <gerald@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 08 Mar 2004 15:10:54 -0600
Hi, all. Here's an update on the ClearSight situation. Sorry to throw this at you all at once. Eben thinks we have a case. I had a long phone conversation with Eben Moglen on Friday. Much of what follows is taken from some hurriedly-written notes I took during the conversation: - Eben thinks we have a strong case. Since Ethereal is a required component for a fully-functioning version of ClearSight Analyzer (CSA), this falls well within the definition of a combined work and they are therefore in violation of the GPL. Their source distribution may be in violation as well, which I'll discuss below. - We have several options available, litigation-wise. We can seek an injuction against ClearSight which would prevent them from shipping CSA in its current form. We can seek damages. We can try to have the source for CSA opened under the GPL or a GPL-compatible license. - Should we decide to seek an injunction, it would likely cost 25,000 to 30,000 USD. - He is willing to assist us in the case. However, he can't do pro bono work in California (CA), which is where it makes the most sense to file a case. - There are lawyers in CA that may be willing to represent us pro bono or on spec. - An officially registered copyright is apparently a prerequisite for copyright litigation in the US. I preemptively sent in a preliminary application to the US Library of Congress (LOC) a couple of weeks ago in case litigation came sooner rather than later. We will have to file an amended application at some point since I didn't have everyone's full name, address, and year of birth. - He stressed several times the importance of unanimity from Ethereal's copyright holders. It is much better to have a united front than to have several (possibly conflicting) claims against ClearSight. - It's important to make this case as airtight as possible, in order to set a precedent for any future litigation. Questions for copyright holders. In order to proceed with this, Ethereal's copyright holders need to agree on a final objective. Do we simply want ClearSight to stop infringement? Do we want them to open the source of Analyzer? Do we want damages? Should they be allowed to keep doing what they're doing, provided they pay a licensing fee? We must also definitively establish who has a legal claim on Ethereal's copyright. There are _many_ people (and companies) listed in copyright notices in all of the files in the source code. There are many more listed in the AUTHORS file. Anyone who paid these people to write the code that's in Ethereal may have a copyright claim on a work-for-hire basis. Getting Ethereal's copyright status formally established is going to be a chore. I'll dedicate whatever time is necessary to do this. I'll try to set up a communication channel for Ethereal's copyright holders in the meantime. This will probably be in the form of another mailing list. ClearSight's source distribution. ClearSight has a link on their FAQ page that lets you download the source for their DLL-ized version of Ethereal. This distribution _must_ contain a copy of the GPL, and it _must_ be possible to build a DLL that is byte-for-byte identical the one that ships with Analyzer. This is another violation of the GPL otherwise. I downloaded the distribution and it appears to be taken from 0.9.15, with the following differences: - A complete tar.gz of the 0.9.15 distribution has been added. MD5 sum matches the official release on the main site. - The "gtk", "debian", and "image" directories have been removed. - A "Release" directory has been added. This is where object files appear to be placed during a build. - A number of changes have been made to the code, commented with the initials "mpm", such as "mpm-modified" or "mpm-removed". Comments from "samuell" are also present. - Andreas Sikkema's H.323 code has been added, which is licensed under the MPL. Andreas, you and/or Philips may have grounds for a separate claim against them. - The files "appdancer.c" and "appdancer.h" have been added towiretap, along with the neccessary changes to integrate them. These files have no copyright.
- The GPL license files are intact. Score one for CS. - So far I've been unable to rebuild the Ethereal DecodeEngine.dll. There doesn't appear to be any documentation on how to do this. Building from "ethereal.dsw" builds "ethereal.lib", but not the DLL. Building from "DecodeEngine.dll" gives me an error about GLib missing. Miscellaneous information. ClearSight appears to be a fairly small company. They're privately held by the Toyo Corporation. The page at http://www.clearsightnet.com/mgmt.jsp lists "Thomas Orr" as the president and CEO. My correspondence with ClearSight has beenfrom from William Berkman, president and CEO. This is a pretty odd discrepancy.
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