• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

FreeDOS/DRDOS Possible Liscense Violation

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.
Captain Newbie

Captain Newbie

Senior Django-loving Member
​
Joined
Jan 2, 2004
Location
Right seat with a bored "don't kill me" expression
(Original story: slashdot.org - "DrDOS Breaking GPL")

DrDOS, a company that markets a clone of the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MSDOS) for x86 computers, may or may not have taken code that is liscensed under the GNU Public Liscense for commercial purposes without proper citation or documentation. This page from the FreeDOS project documents the alleged abuses of the GNU Public Liscense. The abuses are quite extensive.

Further details to follow. The day when the GPL would be abused like this was coming anyway...but...*shrug* This sucks.
 
It will be interesting to see if the open source movement can come up with the financial resources to successfully pursue a legal challenge against a corporation like that.
 
GPL code was infringed countless times, so this is hardly news.

Also, the iptables and busybox folks alread got an injunction at a german court so the infringer couldn't sell their firewall boxes anymore in Germany. After that and the really big bad press it generated, they complied rathre quickly...
 
Oh no! someone stole part of an open source clone of an OS bought by a company from a guy who wrote it as a clone of CP/M. When will it end!

Seriously, though, this is bad. You can't just go ripping off other people's code, even if it is open source. On the other hand, you can't go accusing people of doing so without good evidence (hello SCO). Makes life complicated, doesn't it?
 
Gnufish said:
Oh no! someone stole part of an open source clone of an OS bought by a company from a guy who wrote it as a clone of CP/M. When will it end!
Click to expand...
ROFL...Yeah, the old "16-bit patch for the..." joke came to mind :cool:

Even if it's junk, you shouldn't steal it.

On the third hand, this may have been unintentional--I hope that DR actually responds to the FreeDOS project coordinator's inquiries. But a cold shoulder means that it was somewhat deliberate.
 
Gnufsh said:
Oh no! someone stole part of an open source clone of an OS bought by a company from a guy who wrote it as a clone of CP/M. When will it end!
Click to expand...
Microsoft orignally bought 16-bit MSDOS from Seattle Computer Systems. Seattle Computer Systems' 16-bit MSDOS was a rip off of the 8-bit CP/M from Digital Research.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back