Netonix Forums

Anyone else read this today? http://libertybsd.net/ubiquiti/

I was one of those guys bitching about them not releasing the SDK because I was building my own airos images with a few customizations that are currently impossible to implement while maintaining airmax drivers for the radios. I basically gave up, but someone is trying to get some movement on this. Mikrotik is just as guilty though and it seems these violations are extremely common. Mikrotik also stopped releasing code so new mikrotik boards don't have opwnwrt ports and maybe more importantly for me, the 'metarouter' code isn't released so getting newer openwrts to run in metarouter isn't yet possible.

One of the big issues for me for both ubnt and mikrotik is that by not releasing their u-boot code, it makes running open-wrt or other firmware much harder. u-boot is open source so they are supposed to be releasing these changes. Openwrt for instance can't yet boot on ubiquiti AC gear because the u-boot code isn't available, the same is true of the mikrotik hardware using the same chipset family (atheros 988x).

It's going to take time, money, and lawyers to get this done now that UBNT has went IPO. Is UBNT in violation? Most likely, but nothing will come of it as no one has the resources to force them to become compliant. Unless you can get a government office or DA to force the issue, the GPL enforcement is SOL.

Ant wrote:It's going to take time, money, and lawyers to get this done now that UBNT has went IPO. Is UBNT in violation? Most likely, but nothing will come of it as no one has the resources to force them to become compliant. Unless you can get a government office or DA to force the issue, the GPL enforcement is SOL.

I don't know that GPL issues are that expensive to enforce for an individual, the FSF would certainly get financially involved. Just takes copyright owner to file the lawsuit.

I guess for the me troubling thing is that 'we' are for the most part tied to vendors that are happy to steal for profit and us standing up for that means organizing and boycotting which is powerball lottery odds unlikely.

You think Mimosa is/will be any different?

rebelwireless wrote:You think Mimosa is/will be any different?

No. Why would they if there's no recourse for not doing so?

ISW-Mike wrote:

rebelwireless wrote:You think Mimosa is/will be any different?

No. Why would they if there's no recourse for not doing so?

maybe they are better than that lol, or want to get good vibes from the community.