2006.08.24, Thursday

From: http://www.mepis.org/node/10965

Filed under: Technology, Linux — Allan @ 06:03:48

Cipherfunk Shutdown by GPL Police

Submitted by warren on Thu, 08/24/2006 - 04:55. Other

The cipherfunk web site, which made extra packages available to Ubuntu and MEPIS users, was shut down in response to complaints from Ubuntu team members Matthew Garrett and Philipp Kern. It is my understanding they alleged that cipherfunk was not making modified GPLed source code available in a timely fashion.

You can read about it at http://64.71.152.24/index.html and try to figure it our for yourself. If you used the cipherfunk repository, please make a donation to cipherfunk while you’re there–or at least send a note of support and thanks.

AFAIK, Matthew and Philipp are students. Perhaps they should be forgiven if you think they lack judgement or maturity. And no one should blame Ubuntu for the actions of a couple of its contributors.

On the other hand, if you think this sounds exactly like something the blind followers of an unethical hacker of the 1970s would be encouraged to do, you’re probably right.

Warren

Reference URIs:
http://64.71.152.24/index.html
http://64.71.152.24/original.html

I’ve got a box of the latest Ubuntu CD, sitting in the living room at this very moment. I used to hand ‘em out to folks who could have used the look at another Linux distro; but that’s definitely over. Those CDs are getting microwaved, snapped in half, and tossed in the trash.

What Matthew Garrett and Philipp Kern did to Paul Drain is inexcusable, and indicative of the kind of attitudes which are foreign to the F/L-OSS community. They are not “of us”, as it were.

There is no retraction in the works, as far as I can tell. No “OH! Oopsie! I was being a putz!” to be read about this. No.

I am left, instead, thinking of this:

Hi,I’ve noticed that you’re providing kernel binaries at http://64.71.152.24/dapper-binaries/ . As I’m sure you’re aware, the kernel is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2. Under section (3) of the license, when distributing derivitives of this code you are obliged to eithera) accompany it with the source code, or
b) provide a written offer to provide the source code on request for no more than the cost of physically performing the distribution

Currently you are doing neither of these, and as a result are breaching the license of the code. As one of the copyright holders of the code, I would request that you conform to your obligations under the license.

This is not required for the X driver, as it is not released under the GPL.

Thanks,
–
Matthew Garrett | mxxx9@sxxf.uxxm.org

What a self-effacing jerk!

There is no, “you’re one of us” attitude implicit in Garrett’s words. There’s no offer of upstream inclusion, in any way, shape or form. He is, incorrectly accusing Paul Drain of being in violation of the GPL; and the microserfs must be loving this to death. Matthew Garrett really needs to distance himself from any Open Source project until he can crank-up his grey cells enough to freakin’ get it!

Shuttleworth may not have been able to control the actions of his contributors, however, he is at the helm of Ubuntu, and the ship goes where he steers it. He cannot claim ignorance on this in the least. I see no attempt at remediation or reconcilliation, on the part of Canonical.

Therefore, where I would normally merely cease advocating for an organization; until a public apology is tendered by Garrett, Kern and Shuttleworth to Paul Drain; and they have righted all wrongs against him; I will actively advocate against Canonical, LTD, and the Ubuntu distribution.

If you’re shopping for a Linux distribution that is easy to install and just works, go with SimplyMEPIS (for the time being) and PCLOS. Do not, under any circumstances, use Ubuntu.

One might easily conclude that Canonical seems to want to kill-off some of the most usefully creative people out there.

So…Who’s next?